THURSDAY, MAY 01, 2008
Sue Sutherland est encore avec l'investigation
C'est vrai. Sue et moi, nous avons des différences en arrière. Mais maintenant c'est le temps pour mettre des différences en arrière et travail ensemble. A vous que j'ai offensé, et a Sue, j'appologize pour mes errors (vraiment, j'ai fait beaucoup des errors, c'est la vie).
La réalité est ceci : La Sûreté du Québec sont l'organisation avec les meilleures ressources pour résoudre le crime. Mais ils ne veulent pas de le faire. Moi? Plus en plus je veux concentrer de les plus grandes questions de la justice, ou rein du tout. Seulement les choses plue simple - un cafe dans un bistro, le cinéma, mes enfants. La personne a équipé mieux pour résoudre le crime est Sue. Elle parle la langue, elle est au Québec, elle a une soif pour l'enquette.
Je voudrai que vous la donnerez toute votre assistance. Si vous avez n'importe quelle information sur la mort de Theresa Allore envoyer votre information à Sue:
Sue Sutherland
CP 45 Succursale Lennoxville
Sherbrooke J1M 1Z3
Canada
ou
justice4theresa@hotmail.com
Tel: 514-264-7830
("Mme Espiegle", S.V.P. fais le contact avec Sue)
Merci T.R.
Posted by John Allore 5/01/2008 06:53:00 AM
1 comment:
**Anonymous said...
Welcome back Ms Sutherland.
Anon
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MONDAY, MAY 05, 2008
What's more important--a Confession or a Conviction?
Anon alerted to me a news story about Iris L. Brown--a woman who was kidnapped, strangled and dumped along Interstate 89 in 1976. For 32 years, her family didn't know what happened to her until a dying man in a Butner, NC, federal prison was offered immunity in return for the details of her death.
William Posey was sentenced to life in prison in 1980 for kidnapping her but never owned up to the murder. Cold case investigators and Ms. Brown's family figured it was more important to find out what happened to her than getting a conviction for her murder. Their gamble paid off. They can at least put to rest all those questions in their mind. And since Posey is already serving a life sentence for another murder and is terminally ill, there didn't seem to be any advantage to trying to bring him to trial for Iris Brown's murder.
I'm curious to find out what you readers think about trading off immunity for a confession. At what point, if any, would you put that offer on the table if one of your family members were killed and you had a suspect for the murder?
Here's the link to the rest of the newspaper article:
[Ailing inmate's confession solves 1976 murder
William Posey, in prison for kidnapping victim, admits strangling Iris Brown
Brown, then 27, disappeared in 1976
Police plan to search for body, but Posey's description isn't detailed
"We knew he was the killer," Brown's sister says
BURLINGTON, Vermont (AP) -- For 32 years, Iris L. Brown's family lived in limbo, not knowing what happened to her after she was kidnapped in 1976.
Iris Brown was 27 when she disappeared in 1976. A dying inmate has confessed to her murder.
Now, they know, police said Tuesday.
The man convicted of kidnapping her, now seriously ill in a prison medical center, has finally confessed to strangling her and dumping her remains along Interstate 89.
Offered immunity by cold-case investigators, William J. Posey, 61, told Burlington police that he killed Brown, 27, after he lured her into his car with a false story and then tried to talk her into helping him sell cocaine. He strangled her after an argument broke out, he said.
A search is planned, although Posey was unable to give more than a general idea of the location in Vermont where the body was dumped, authorities said.
" 'Closure' is a word that people reach for in situations like this," said Brown's sister, Roslyn Brown, 52, of Enosburg. "It does not mean a terrible experience comes to an end. For over 32 years, our family has suffered through an incredible gamut of emotions.
"We knew he was the killer," she said. "We just didn't know the when, the how, the where, the why."
Posey was sentenced to life for Brown's kidnapping and later pleaded guilty to the 1980 murder of an Illinois woman. He was interviewed by investigators last week at the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina.
Suffering from a vascular disease, he is under treatment in a section reserved for terminal patients.
He shed a single tear as he told Detective Lt. Emmet Helrich and Detective Brad Trombley that his previous story wasn't true. Helrich had made a similar effort five years ago, without any luck.
Brown was last seen leaving her Burlington apartment with Posey, who told her he'd gotten a telegram from her boyfriend saying he was to be released early from a prison in Connecticut.
His previous story was that they had driven partway to the Connecticut prison, getting as far as Springfield, Massachusetts. He said he turned around and returned, leaving her in Massachusetts, after finding out the boyfriend wasn't getting out after all.
Now, he admits that the story about the boyfriend was a ruse and he wanted to get Brown involved in selling drugs, detectives said.
"After a little bit, a couple questions, he told us the events," Trombley said.
Joy Hopkins, a friend of Brown's, shared an emotional hug with Brown's sister at police headquarters Tuesday and said Brown would not have been interested in dealing cocaine.
"This cocaine thing, she was not a cocaine user; she was not a drug user," Hopkins said Tuesday. "That should be out there right now."
The investigators made the trip to North Carolina carrying letters from county and federal prosecutors saying he wouldn't be tried if he confessed.
"It wasn't a hard call," Chittenden County State's Attorney T.J. Donovan said. "It came down to giving her family the opportunity to find out what happened. He's already serving a life sentence."]
====
Maritime Missy
Posted - 5/05/2008 01:23:00 AM
4 comments:
**John Allore said...
I'd take the confession in exchange for immunity any day. JJA
**Maritime Missy said...
I'm inclined to agree. I'd take the confession. A trial only confirms the confession. (Don't get me wrong...I'd still like to see a murderer behind bars...but if he's already there...what does a trial accomplish??)
**Bill Widman said...
Finding the remains of a loved one is important to me. Sometimes the killer is the only who knows where the body is. I'm sure anyone in that situation would be willing to cut some slack in exchange for that info.
In the case of a man who's already convicted and terminally ill, there doesn't seem much point in another conviction anyway.
Every day I wonder if today's the day I get a call telling me they found a skeleton somewhere that they have a positive ID on.
I'd love to have a place to go to remember Debbie besides a parking lot in Carrboro.
It would sure be a lot easier to forgive a killer if he tells us what we want to know.
**Raging Ranter said...
I'm basically just aping what has already been said. But he's already been incarcerated life, and he's terminally ill. This is the last chance to solve the crime and find answers. The immunity offer is simply a tool used to pry loose some vital information. It certainly isn't an exoneration of the murderer. No killer will be turned loose as the result of this, yet answers will be found. I say every effort should be made to get the confession and VERIFY it so that the family will have answers. His immunity is a side-note at this point - he likely wouldn't live long enough to see a trial anyway.
The Green River Killer, Gary Leon Ridgeway, was granted immunity from the death penalty in exchange for details leading to the recovery of remains of numerous victims. It was more galling in that he was NOT terminally ill, and he WAS gaining something tangible from the deal (he was being allowed to live). Yet the prosecutors and the victims families felt it was worth it, in order to get as many answers and recover as many remains as possible.
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TUESDAY, MAY 06, 2008
Don't you hate it when this happens
Hello John,
My name is xxxx yyyyyyyy. I am an intern at Dateline NBC and I am currently doing research on stories similar to your sister's.
I would love to talk to you briefly and find out the status/any developments in your story.
Is there a number where I can contact you?
If it is preferred, you may contact me here at Dateline. The phone number is (818) xxx-xxxx.
Thank you. I look forward to speaking with you.
Posted by John Allore - 5/06/2008 06:20:00 PM
2 comments:
**Anonymous said...
What else is there to say? Wow!!
Anon
**Bill Widman said...
Sometimes I hate it.
Sometimes I love it.
Sometimes there's just no way to predict how it's gonna go at first contact.
The question on the bottom line is,
"What have I got to lose?"
-------------------------------------------------------
WEDNESDAY, MAY 07, 2008
Dateline NBC
I'm afraid I was being slightly sarcastic yesterday. Don't get too excited about this. I have fielded many calls from these types of folks - they rarely pan out.
1. It's an intern (I hope to God not a summer intern); which means they are the bottom-feeder of the news organization. They've been sent to troll the blogsphere for anything interesting and they found Theresa.
2. Half the time these folks don't know what-the-hell they're even looking for, they're running in five places at once and have the attention span of a Golden Retriever.
But I say, turn a disadvantage into an advantage. I will tell them what they're looking for. My job is to spin a story so compelling that it just might make it to the boss' desk. Because they are a national, American news organization, there is one aspect of this story I am going to pitch to them (and it ain't Allore-Camirand-Dube). You're smart cookies, can you guess what angle I'm going to play up? Here's a hint... Anon touched on it again recently.
Posted by John Allore - 5/07/2008 06:58:00 AM
4 comments:
**Bill Widman said...
John - Sometimes I never know if you're kidding or not.
Having had recently a learning experience myself with a news team, an example was made of how they pretend to be on your side to get your story, then they make it into their story.
In the end, I and my friends have agreed that the important thing is that the story is told.
They may not tell the story the way we would like, but at least they get it out there.
I say go for it, John.
By the way, some of my favorite dogs have been golden retrievers.
**John Allore said...
Golden Retrievers: Big, Dumb, Hopelessly Loyal and Lovable.
JJA
**Doreen said...
John,
I agree with Bill......just go for it!
Doreen D.
**Raging Ranter said...
Theresa's death was so long ago. Any type of media attention you can get at this point is worth it.
I just finished reading John Walsh's book Tears of Rage not too long ago. He went into great detail about his love-hate relationship with the media. On the one hand, he despised many of the reporters, and especially their bosses, who seemed only interested in exploiting the story for their own selfish ends. On the other, he realized early on that they were a vital tool in his desperate search for his son. In fact they were the only tool he had at his disposal that didn't cost a fortune.
Make the best use of every bit of media attention that comes along.
----------------------------------------------------------
FRIDAY, MAY 09, 2008
When the whole town knows your kink
I read this story this morning. Thought about it. Decided not to post it. Then the Mayor wrote me about it, "John didn't know if I should bother you with this, but I knew you'd want to know".
I like how JK Rowling writes how whenever Muggles feel irrational despair, the Dementors are nearby. I have not felt right the last 24 hours, but I have every reason to be in good spirits. Maybe this is the reason.
I did not know Irina Yarmolenko was from Carrboro, and I have selfish reasons for posting this. I want to know how she died. Someone please tell me the Mount Holly Police aren't handling this on their own.
The Charlotte Observer
For two hours Thursday night, an extended UNC Charlotte family stood in a semicircle, telling stories about Irina "Ira" Yarmolenko who grew up in Chapel Hill. The Ira (pronounced EE-ra) who left sticky notes with funny messages on sinks and above toilets to brighten her roommates' day.
The Ira who spent half an hour in a cardboard "gingerbread" house built for kids, making statues out of Play-Doh.
The Ira who spent Sunday mornings sipping coffee and talking about how she would change the world.
The 20-year-old died on Monday in what police now say is a homicide. She died of asphyxiation, her body discovered next to her car on the banks of the Catawba River, Mount Holly Police said Thursday.
They named no suspects and have no motive. Investigators are trying to figure out what happened between 10:50 a.m., when Yarmolenko was last seen at her job at a coffee shop near UNCC, and 1:18 p.m., when a woman riding a personal watercraft reported finding her body.
In a news conference Thursday, Mount Holly Police Chief David Belk wouldn't reveal whether Yarmolenko had been strangled or smothered, saying only that she died from a lack of oxygen. Belk also wouldn't say whether police had found marks or wounds on her body.
It is the latest in a string of high-profile killings of N.C. college students this year. They include the slaying of UNC Chapel Hill Student Body President Eve Carson and Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato. On Feb. 1, police believe a UNCC student, Simrit Gill, was killed in a domestic violence homicide.
Why someone would kill Yarmolenko, a bubbly college sophomore, continued to puzzle investigators and the more than 300 people gathered around UNCC's Belk Tower Thursday.
"Ira, you can't describe in words," her cousin, Natasha Deyneka, of Raleigh, told the crowd. "She was selfless and pure and amazing, and you can only describe her with superlatives. Any of you, if you had a bad day, she would be there with a bouquet of flowers and a hug for you."
Authorities said Yarmolenko didn't appear to have a reason to drive to Mount Holly, where her body and blue Saturn sedan were found. The car appeared to have traveled about a half mile past the Stowe Family YMCA and down a steep embankment, where it struck a tree stump.
Yarmolenko was found outside the car, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, black skirt and athletic shoes, Belk said. In the hours before her death, she'd been at a credit union and then at the coffee shop.
Belk said police had "some strong leads," but didn't go into detail about them. He said his department would let the public know if there was a suspect description, but stressed that "there's nothing to indicate there's someone out there that's stalking or chasing people."
Hours later, at the memorial, Yarmolenko's brother, Pavel, had different messages for people who'd been touched by his sister's murder.
"The person who killed my sister, he's in some ways a byproduct of the system that we live in, and we have to change it. You all have to make a difference now," he said. "I hope when you go home tonight, that you will tell everyone you love them. Because I didn't get a chance at all. I didn't get a chance to tell my sister that I loved her."
Anyone with information should call Mount Holly Police at 704-827-4343.
----------------------------
Pavel's message. That's not uncommon. That's the first thing Pierre told me to do after his second daughter died. Tell them you love them. I do it about 4 -5 times a day; they're getting a little unsettled by it. Oh well...
Posted by John Allore - 5/09/2008 05:09:00 PM
5 comments:
**Anonymous said...
Thanks for that important story, John. And don't worry about the eye rolling and weird looks your daugthers give you when you tell them how you feel...you should see some of the looks on my boys' faces, but that isn't going to change a thing...it was good advice from your friend, Pierre.
[Anon]
**Maritime Missy said...
I am sad. Sad that another young woman has been murdered. Sad that her brother didn't get a chance to say goodbye. Sad about everything and nothing.
**Bill Widman said...
Once again a beautiful young woman from the Chapel Hill area is murdered, for no apparent reason.
I never knew Irina, but I was able to talk to some people who did. It's a familiar story, perhaps too familiar.
She was a good person, never did any harm, loved by everyone, witty, charming, good natured, and why the hell would anyone want to kill her?
Irina was buried yesterday at the Chapel Hill Cemetery. There was quite a turn out. I can tell she will be well remembered.
We search for answers, knowing we may not like what we find.
**Anonymous said...
Guestbook for Irina:
http://www.legacy.com/charlotte/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=109250336&PageNo=3
[Anon]
**Anonymous said...
Irina's site:
http://www.irayarmolenko.com/
[Anon]
-------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2008
Two different states, three similar disappearances
I come across a lot of missing person and cold case stories as a result of this blog. Every once in awhile, something triggers my attention. I just read a story about Mary Cronin and I was struck by the similarities between her disappearance and those of the two young women who went missing in New Hampshire. You could almost switch the names and swear it was the same story.
Mary Cronin, Omaha, Nebraska
“Mary worked part time at Cappy's Bar at 108th and Mockingbird in Omaha (Nebraska). It was April 12, 1992, she was in the parking lot about 1:30 in the morning after the bar closed with a man. That was the last time she was seen alive. Mary's purple Cadillac found a few hours later... A few miles down the road in Sarpy County in a ditch...near 96th and Harrison. It was left running, lights on, door open with her purse still in the front seat. Mary just vanished. Her car just towed away.
SOURCE: http://www.action3news.com/Global/story.asp?S=8275518&nav=menu550_2
Brianna Maitland, Montgomery, Vermont
Maitland was last seen at her dishwashing job at the Black Lantern Inn in Montgomery, Vermont, between 11:20 p.m. and midnight on March 19, 2004…Maitland's vehicle, a pale green four-door 1985 Oldsmobile sedan, was found abandoned on March 20, off East Berkshire Road and Route 118, across Dutchburn Farm Road, about a mile outside of Montgomery. It was parked partially inside an abandoned barn. Two of Maitland's uncashed paychecks were on the front seat of the car. She also left behind all her clothing, her medicine, driver's license, her makeup, and her contact lenses. She hasn't been seen since.
Maura Murray, Woodsville, New Hampshire
During the early evening of February 9, 2004, Maura Murray ran her car into a ditch off the Wild Ammonoosuc Road in Woodsville, New Hampshire. When police arrived, Maura had vanished.
====
Maritime Missy
Posted - 5/11/2008 02:16:00 AM
5 comments:
**Anonymous said...
From the link in the story of Mary Cronin, these words... "Mistakes made early in the investigation may have let the killer slip away..." tie so many cases together.
[Anon]
**Raging Ranter said...
I've been following those New Hampshire cases. Maura Murray's is the strangest of all. She was spotted in her car, yet when the tow truck came for her awhile later, she was gone. Disappeared without a trace.
The frightening thing is not so much mistakes that may or may not have been made at first, but how the leads have just dried up completely, with seemingly no chance of ever getting it solved. The police are at a total loss.
Brianna Maitland was more of a "high risk" victim, having association with gang members and drug dealers, and had dabbled in methamphetamine. It seems likely that her killer(s) is somehow related to this.
**Raging Ranter said...
Another Omaha disappearance that has always bugged me is this one.
http://members.cox.net/prayersandposters/page2.html
I'm sure you've blogged about this one before. Jason Jolkowski disappeared in broad daylight from his Omaha, NE meighbourhood while walking to meet his ride for work. Not a trace of him has ever been found, and to this day the police have no clue as to why he disappeared.
**Loo said...
In Quebec there's a couple cases like this too.. no trace, at all.
**Anonymous said...
Information re: Maura Murray
http://southshorexpress.net/content/blogcategory/912/174
'Anon'
-----------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2008
Every Picture Tells a Story ...
[Two photos: John Allore graduation]
Don't It.
Posted by John Allore - 5/11/2008 04:07:00 PM
6 comments:
**Anonymous said...
WOW!!! I absolutely take my hat off to you John.
Hey, where's your mortarboard?
Anon :-)
**Maritime Missy said...
WOOHOOO!!! *clap clap clap* Congratulations John on yet another personal achievement.
**Bill Widman said...
Way to go, John!
Watch out, World!
**B said...
good for you kiddo
you look old
I hope that isn't your school behind you
I think you lost your cap and tassel
seriously, congratulations
stay out of the sun
Love
B
**John Allore said...
Bobby Milk: I've got an 11 year old, I am old!
**Sharron Prior website said...
WEll! Look at you Mr. John Allore!
"CONGRATULATIONS"...I Love that second photo! with your eyes peeking out behind...
"Report of the Public Inquiry Commission appointed to inquire into the Surete du Quebec...."
"Check out your brother Theresa!
Doreen
---------------------------------------------------------
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2008
Seemed about a hundred years ago
I'm skippin meals, gettin down to fight weight (that's for you, B). Seriously, I'm tired of feeling old. I've lost 15 lbs, and I'm going for another 15. I wanna be that skinny kid again.
Tomorrow I'm headed for the beach for 4 days with just me and my girls. Don't try to find me, I'll be incommunicado (alright, I'll be in the Canadian Hole).
If been up and down lately. Despair is a killer. Up now, but I'm totally avoiding the issue of having to go back home next week and help my parents downsize into a condo. That's right, I'm the guy packing up Theresa's room and bringing it South (the bed, the bike, the books...)
I'm avoiding the whole thought that this is too depressing. So I'll just pretend it's no big deal - what a lie. Oh well, if I can't be emotionally honest, at least I'll look good. I'm starting to look gaunt... another 6 miles a day, black coffee and cold tea and I'll be back to my old, old self.
I'm really tired. I'm gonna run on the beach, make sand castles on the beach, baseball, football, reading... on the beach and not much else. I'm gonna let the wind and sand wash away about three years worth of remorse and regret.
Then I'm gonna come back and do it all over again, from the beginning. But with a bigger smile.
Posted by John Allore - 5/14/2008 06:36:00 PM
5 comments:
**Bill Widman said...
Sounds like an excellent plan to me, John.
I hope you succeed in all the goals you've mentioned.
Think of me when you're on the beach.
I'll be with you in spirit!
**Raging Ranter said...
Don't get too skinny. Sometimes a little fat reserve comes in handy.
**Loo said...
Canadian Hole..
I find you very harsh!
**Anonymous said...
That's just his sense of humor.
**Loo said...
I guess i just cannot get use to it!!
-------------------------------------------------------
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 04, 2008
Don't say a word, Don't say anything
Dear Readers, sadly you are faced with a summer of silly and frivolous posts. Not that there isn't plenty going on. Far from it. I just can't talk about it. When things start happening, sadly the blog works to the detriment of making any progress. Some examples:
1. Sue Sutherland is hard at work tracking down leads on Theresa's murder investigation. We are pretty much convinced that answers to the unsolved case lie in the Eastern Townships, and that there are still people alive who have pieces to the puzzle, but no one has bothered to ask their opinions. Sue and I stay in close contact. But she doesn't tell me everything. In fact, we agree that she shouldn't tell me everything to protect the integrity of what she is doing. But please, if you have any information, contact Sue.
2. About a year ago, I reconciled with Champlain College in Lennoxville, the school Theresa was attending before she died. I can't go into details just yet. I will say I no longer have a beef with the institution: the key players from that era at the school have either retired or died. And I will not hold on to hate and the expense of my mental health.
Champlain and my family are working on something. I just can't talk about it. It's a good thing, and an announcement will be eminent.
3. Dateline NBC: We finally made contact. I gave them some pieces of the puzzle to look at. It seemed to tweek their interest. We shall see if they run with it. It would be so nice to get some U.S. coverage.
4. The murder of Irina Yarmolenko, a local student who was attending UNC Charlotte... this case keeps getting more interesting.
Keep watching the skies!
Posted by John Allore - 6/04/2008 07:01:00 AM
8 comments:
**Bill Widman said...
"Don't say anything"?
Gee, I hope this doesn't mean you don't want any comments.
A summer of silly and frivolous posts is something I can deal with. I consider creative silliness to be good therapy when dealing with so much serious stuff.
Believe me, having news you want to report, but can't, is something I can relate to very much right now.
I'm still mad at Champlain College for the way they treated your family during a time of tragedy. Is that alright? If you're not mad at them anymore, can I be mad for you? I don't mind, really. It's the least I can do.
I totally agree with you on the Yarmolenko story. It keeps getting more interesting the more we learn about it.
**John Allore said...
Yes, anyone can be mad for me, I can't control how people feel. Nor do I regret, or will I take back anything I said or did concerning Champlain in the past.
But let's move forward.
JJA
**Bill Widman said...
Aye aye, Captain.
Full speed ahead!
**Anonymous said...
Aye! I won't take this ABUSE much longer!
**Anonymous said...
I had a feeling that Dateline deal would come through, John...that's good news, and good to have some US coverage.
[Anon]
**B said...
when will you be guest hosting the View?
B
**Anonymous said...
Speaking of Dateline and such shows, on Saturday June 14th at 10pm, on CBS 48 hours there will be a broadcast about the disappearances of both Tara Grinstead (http://www.findtara.com/) and Jennifer Kesse (http://jenniferkesse.com/)
Anon
**John Allore said...
B:
It was actually going to be this week but Michelle Obama took my spot.
J
-------------------------------------------------------
SATURDAY, JUNE 07, 2008
Could the Cindy Halliday case be connected to Theresa's?
According to the RCMP’s website about the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS), links have been made in over 88,000 cases which means that “there are a large number of serial offenders committing crimes against people on a regular basis in Canada.” (http://www.rcmp.ca/techops/viclas_e.htm )
Dr. Kim Rossmo, a former Vancouver Police detective inspector who developed the geographic profiling system, said that in order for a crime to be linked--there has to be more similarities than differences.
Earlier this week, as I was watching the cold case of Cindy Halliday on Court TV's Crime Files with Sue Sgambati, those two statements were echoing in the back of mind. Could Cindy’s case be connected with Theresa’s, Louise Camirand’s or possibly Manon Dubé’s cases?
Cindy was murdered in 1992 near Barrie, Ontario. You can find info about her murder here:
http://www.simcoe.com/article/50578
http://www.simcoe.com/article/50574
By the end of the show, I thought there seemed to be more than a few similarities between Cindy’s and Theresa’s murders.
Similarities
- Cindy was a 17-year-old brunette.
- She went missing on Easter Monday 1992. (Louise went missing in March 1977; Manon Dube was found on Good Friday 1978; Theresa was found on Good Friday 1979; )
- Cindy was picked up hitchhiking in a remote and small-town area of Ontario (Midland-Waverly--just outside Barrie. Major cottage country--similar to the Townships)
- Witnesses report seeing her accept a ride from a guy driving a 1979-1981 Chrysler LeBaron or Dodge Diplomat (I think the tv show mentioned something about it being maroon in colour...but I'm not certain. You can find photos of a 1979 LeBaron here: http://www.angelfire.com/ca/mikesspot/79chrysler.html ; you can find photos of a 1979 Diplomat here: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/748624 )
- Her body was discovered off the side of a remote logging/concession road
- Her wallet was discovered in a pond/bog at the side of another nearby secluded road
- Her jacket was found 10 days after the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) already conducted an extensive search of that same area. (The police say it's definitely a possibility that the killer returned to the crime scene and placed it there after he knew the area had already been searched.)
- Her body was found in a deteriorated state two months after she went missing. (I think the only thing they found was a skull.)
- Other than a jacket, most of her clothing was never found. (The OPP assume animals took off with it.)
- Forensic science hasn't been any help in producing additional evidence.
Differences
- The murder scene was in Ontario--not Quebec (but the offender could have moved between 1979 and 1992)
- Cindy was apparently stabbed. Theresa’s cause of death isn’t known for certain but it’s very possible she was strangled. Louise Camirand was strangled. (Police speculate Cindy was stabbed as she tried to get away from the killer while still in the car...and sensing that he was losing control of his victim, her killer slashed her.)
My questions:
1. The OPP said they fed Cindy’s case details into ViCLAS but it didn’t generate any “hits”. When did they do this? Cindy was murdered in 1992. Theresa’s info and Louise Camirand’s case details weren’t submitted to ViCLAS until 2004 and 2005 respectively. If the OPP checked ViCLAS prior to 2004, I’m not surprised they wouldn’t have seen a possible “link” between the three cases. Another possible reason why ViCLAS didn’t return a “hit” could be due to the fact that the Sûreté du Quebec (SQ) would have entered the information in French. I’m sure the OPP investigators aren’t francophones.
2. Did the SQ do a good job in answering the ViCLAS questions in order to enter the case details of Theresa? I don’t know exactly what information the ViCLAS database requires but I would imagine some of the questions the police would have to answer include:
- What is the primary motive for the Theresa’s murder?
- What type of person was Theresa Allore?
- When did the crime take place? (Morning? Afternoon?)
- Was the body moved or was it found where the crime took place?
Did the SQ even have enough unbiased or informed case details to even feed into the system?
3. The OPP said that they entered the description of the killer's car into some kind of national vehicle database. If the OPP could do this, why can't the SQ enter the details about the car linked to Louise Camirand's murder in the same database? (Long shot...but...what if the OPP checked to see what people in the Eastern Townships had a LeBaron or Diplomat that matched the description of Cindy's killer's car?)
4. Let's suppose there is a link between Theresa's killer and Cindy's. What would cause the killer to choose the Barrie area to "set up shop"? Could he have moved for work? (There is a military base near the Townships and CFB Borden is not too far from where Cindy’s remains were found.) What industries would attract workers from the Townships to Simcoe County, Ontario? Is there a person who lived in the Townships with a family connection to Barrie?
Of course, I’m not a professional but it doesn’t hurt to ask the questions. Maybe there’s someone out there who remembers a family member or friend behaving strangely during the times these murders were committed. If someone remembers something, then I strongly suggest contacting the OPP, CrimeStoppers or even johnallore@gmail.com.
====
Maritime Missy
Posted - 6/07/2008 02:50:00 AM
3 comments:
**Anonymous said...
Great post, MM. We must not let time, distance or MO stop us from linking cases...all possibilites must be looked at. At the very least, you are bringing attention to another cold case. And, no, it certainly doesn't hurt to ask questions.
Anon
**Bill Widman said...
Congratulations Missy
You've picked up on another cold case, after 30 years, with a possible connection with Theresa.
What would we do without you?
Someone once said to me, "The only dumb questions are the ones you don't ask."
I figured this person has never heard some of the questions I've heard.
In cases like this, however, all questions are good questions.
**Anonymous said...
All questions are good questions, and whatever gets people talking about any of these cold cases, at this point, that might be the only way that any of these cases get solved.
[Anon]
---------------------------------------------------------
THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2008
Some Thoughts on Cold Case Investigations
Remember in cartoons when the Road Runner would be on the edge of a cliff in one of those desert landscapes? The Coyote would chip away the last remaining connection to Terra Firma, but instead of the Road Runner falling, it was the Coyote that would zip out of sight?
This is a well known principal in animation, something Walt Disney termed The Probable Impossible; it doesn't seem to make sense, but somehow it has its own intuitive logic. The Probable Impossible is what allows Mickey Mouse to walk on the ceiling, it's why Bugs Bunny always narrowly avoids destruction, and what leads Daffy Duck to so many ignoble endings.
I suggest that the Probable Impossible is what keeps so many cold cases alive, and what leads - in some cases - to their ultimate resolution. And by that I mean ultimately it takes a little douse of creativity to solve these crimes.
If you know anything about criminal investigation you have heard of the importance of the First 48. The initial 48 hours after a crime is committed is critical to the investigation, statistically it is within this time frame that most cases are solved. Beyond the First 48, the laws of diminishing returns suggest you have an increasingly limited chance of solving the crime as the hours stack up to oblivion.
The statistical significance embedded in the First 48, has lead to a reliance, if not a dependence, on the investigator being ultra-methodical and regimented in his or her investigative practices. We all know this from television; someone is murdered and the immediate response is to interview the family (statistics suggest that in roughly 80% of cases, a family member was responsible), rookie officers are sent to comb the streets, go house-to-house interviewing everyone in the neighborhood. All this is a low-lying fruit approach to investigation, and it makes good intuitive sense; work out from the center and cover all the logical bases.
Statistics would be against me, but I might also argue that this is the lazy approach to investigation. It is always good to be thorough, but at a certain point a good shot of creative thinking just might be the remedy to an investigation that is going nowhere. And here is the nut of my argument concerning crime solving and crime policy.
Public policy making goes like this: You have an academic hypothesis, let's say you think low-income Americans are more prone to eating exotic fruits and vegetables during the good times, and apples and oranges during hard times. You get a data set. You test your theory in good and bad times. You add a control variable (say high earning Americans, or Canadians). You get your answer. Indeed, with a 95% confidence level (meaning 5% of your test sample may be dead wrong, or prone to random error) low-income Americans eat apples and oranges when times are hard. You present your research, if you're lucky some Senator takes interest and introduces a bill subsidizing exotic fruits and vegetables, or giving exotic fruit food stamps to low-income Americans.
My point is it is always very broad, obvious, indefatigable research that gets the interest of policy makers. How could it be otherwise? They are elected officials and there's too much at stake for them to waste their reputations on half-baked ideas.
But the problem is, as time passes, cold cases and their potential resolutions are counting on an idea from left field. Cold cases lie on the margins, the fringes of reason, they are the dominion of the half-baked.
Remember that 5% that resided in the land of error or improbable? That's the kingdom of Gary Ridgway, Robert Pickton and Lee Boyd Malvo. It appeared statistically improbable that Ridgway could kill so many in such a small space over so many years, Green River must be several killers. How could Pickton go unnoticed for so long? Black snipers driving around DC, one of them a kid with a rifle in the trunk? Impossible. Today's outliers are tomorrow's trends.
When Theresa Allore disappeared, the conventional wisdom of the time suggested she was anywhere but the village of Compton where she lived. Check the border because she's made a run for the States. Interview students in the town of Lennoxville where she studied, research the city of Montreal where she came from. So where did she turn up? Dead in a ditch in Compton. At that point what was required was a radical re-adjustment of conventional wisdom and a reassessment of core assumptions. That never happened. And everyone associated with the investigation has suffered the worse for it in the ensuing 30 years.
Don't throw out logical crime-solving techniques. Statistics, confidence intervals, standard deviation; these all suggest that a methodical approach, in most cases, will lead to a successful resolution. But don't become a slave to them either. At a certain point in an investigation, the scales tip, you enter an alternate world where different rules apply. Increasingly you are at the mercy of the Probable Impossible, and you would be wise to re-evaluate everything you've done and reinvestigate under a fresh set of assumptions. You may ultimately find that what you were looking for was right under your nose, but how you will find it might require a spark of creative thinking.
Posted by John Allore 6/12/2008 05:12:00 AM
7 comments:
**Bill Widman said...
Hey John
I think you're on to something here.
Today I've talked to a reporter with Star-News in Wilmington. He's found an interesting parallel between Debbie Key and Allison Jackson-Foy. Both were last seen leaving a bar where people played pool. We talked about possible connections.
Half baked ideas are starting to make sense. I'm gonna be running with some of these. Who knows where they might lead?
Thanks for pointing that out.
**Maritime Missy said...
Fabulous post John. As you know, I'm all for creative thinking... those little flickers of light in the back of your brain that crave some oxygen and the light of day.
Creativity for procedure-prone investigators isn't the norm--it's the exception. When cold cases are resolved, it's usually by someone who looks at the facts in a completely different light. Someone who picks up on a minor incongruency in a witness statement or a crime scene photo and explores all the angles.
If investigators can combine their methodical approach with persistence and a creative spark...miracles happen. Leave no stone unturned. And when that's done...start looking at the pebbles and the leaves.
EVERY homicide NEEDS to be solved. As a citizen, I do not want to share my community with murderers because somebody got lazy or afraid.
**Maritime Missy said...
One more thing...you said that policy makers want statistics and research before making a decision. That's true. But what they really react to is a loud bunch of angry constituents with research and statistics. 500 potential lost votes and bad publicity get the politician's attention.
That's why the people of the Eastern Townships should tell their MPs and MLAs they want these cold cases solved. Murderers do not deserve a "pass" because law enforcement is understaffed, undertrained and underfunded. forget. Give our law enforcement agencies the resources they need to do their job. Give our communities peace of mind. Give the families of murdered citizens resolution.
**Anonymous said...
Yeah, great post, John, but MM, you must also be commended for the many great posts you have blogged over the last year...you have asked some very good questions and you have certainly presented some very creative ideas and some very interesting cases to look at...as parallels and examples of what can be done when someone cares or makes an effort. In cases, such as Theresa's, where there is apparently no DNA evidence to test using new technology, unless there is a confession, cases like these will only be solved by leaving no stone, pebble, leaf or out-there theory unturned.
[Anon]
**Maritime Missy said...
While we're handing out kudos Anon...take some for yourself. Your interest, support and regular comments make blogging worthwhile. (It's no fun blogging if nobody reads the posts or joins the discussion.) You've inspired a few of my posts yourself.
In fact, John has managed to assemble quite an eclectic and dedicated team. I know there are a lot of people working in the background on this case...there are lots of people who share our points of view and provide advice and support and I KNOW there are people out there who have something to share...but haven't found the courage or the words to do so yet. I highly recommend passing on your information to John. You'll get a good night's sleep knowing you did the right thing. :-)
**Bill Widman said...
I'm sorry, but I just can't walk away from this without handing out some kudos too.
John, Missy, Anon, you all make me feel like I'm in good company.
BTW - The reporter I've talked to today, who's name is Jim Ware, mentioned 'Bad Dream House' in the conversation.
I SWEAR, I did NOT bring it up!
This man is writing on the case of Allison Jackson-Foy, and the skeletons found in Wilmington, for the Star-News of Wilmington. Jim saw fit to compare the stories of Allison and Debbie, and I am pleased he wanted to discuss with me the possible connections between these two cases.
And yet, somehow, John's name comes up in the conversation. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
What I think is really cool is that, after I got off the phone with Jim, I go to WKT? and find this post. I have just experienced an example of what John was writing about.
Now how cool is that?
**Anonymous said...
Thank you, MM. Thank you, Bill. I do what I can...I wish I could do more.
Anon
------------------------------------------------------
FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2008
Chaos Theory
Chaos Theory has largely been a realm occupied by physics geeks and mathematicians. Our popular introduction to this phenomena of ordered-randomness was Jeff Goldblum's Doctor Ian Malcolm from the film Jurassic Park who so seductively demonstrated the theory's unstable properties by watching a droplet of water slide down the wrist of Laura Dern. Michael Crichton largely lifted the Malcolm character and his theories from James Gleick's 1987 Chaos: Making a New Science, which first popularised Chaos Theory for the layman.
An early pioneer on the subject, Edward Lorenz elegantly diagrammed variable sensitivity to initial conditions in 1972 as the "butterfly effect". A meteorologist, Lorenz wrote an early paper entitled Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas? The flapping of the butterfly's wings sets off a chain of events in a non-linear system, a small change in the initial condition, leading to a large - and seemingly random - disaster. The trajectory of change would have been quite different had the butterfly not flapped its wings.
Chaos Theory has slowly migrated from pure science to the social sciences. Though the subject has occasionally comes up for me in statistics and economics, my first academic introduction to Chaos Theory was in a class on organizational behavior. In it the professor boldly characterised chaos as responsible for not only the first space shuttle disaster, but as a potential predictor of the second shuttle crash. In this scenario NASA, its engineers, and its contractors are all variables in the disordered, non linear system. The poor weather, individual behavior, poor communication skills are all elements - though seemingly random "noise" - that are actually deterministic, with well defined statistical properties. Though there was certainly some randomness that acted in the event, a large amount of apparent randomness was actually predictable chaos that if properly identified, may have lead to an alternate outcome for the Challenger shuttle
Though Chaos Theory is slowly being embraced by the behavioral sciences, I have yet to see any practical application in criminal investigation. There should be. Variables in the non linear system would include the offender, the victim, police investigations, the environment where they all come in contact. The initial conditions: the offender's predisposition, victimology, everything leading up to the event. We know the outcome; so what could have changed the trajectory - the offender and the victim's path - had initial conditions been different? And what in all of this is randomness and "noise", those elements we can't control. And what is chaos, the seemingly random that we need to better understand to perfect techniques of crime prevention?
Posted by John Allore - 6/20/2008 05:20:00 AM
2 comments:
**Bill Widman said...
If you liked the character, Ian Malcolm, in the film 'Jurassic Park,' I think you will like him even better in the book, where he presents his 'Chaos Theory' with more elaboration.
Sadly, in the book, Dr. Malcolm doesn't survive to see a sequel.
I apppreciate how John had gone from explaining how things work in the cartoon world, to explaining such an advanced scientific theory. Who else do we know who can do that, from one blog post to the next, and still make perfect sense?
'Possibility vs. Probability' is the standard prescription in most detective work.
It is important to remember that the realm of possibility is not limited to the things we already know.
Good work, John!
**Anonymous said...
Yes, good work, John. For myself, I don't necessarily see a Chaos Theory that leads up to my assault in January 1977, I can pretty much see how things lined up...even in ways that I have never mentioned here on the blog, but that's from my point of view...where HE came from...well, that's still a mystery...
Anon
------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 2008
The Power of Profiling
S.T.A.L.K., INC. (System To Apprehend Lethal Killers) is a profiling team of professionals whose mission is to aid law enforcement in the apprehension of serial killers through a comprehensive profiling process. The team includes an MD—Dr. John Kelly; Dr. Edward Merski, the team's head psychologist; John Lewkowicz, a sex addiction specialist; Ruth Moore, a psychiatric nurse specialist; and homicide detective Frank Adamson, who worked on the Green River Killer case in the Pacific Northwest. Together, they have developed a pro bono profile for a Worcester, MA, serial killer (see below) as well as one for an Atlantic City serial killer.
The “Woodsman” profile, detailed in the newspaper article below, is particularly chilling—mostly because it resembles one that I’ve had floating around in my mind for quite some time now in connection with Theresa’s case. (FYI…The Woodsman is NOT Theresa’s killer. He wouldn’t be old enough. Police have named 38-year-old Alex F. Scesny as a suspect in the Massachusetts murders.)
STALK’s website, www.stalkinc.com/index.html, invites people to contact them to discuss a case. They promise to reply in five days.
====
Sunday, October 22, 2000
By Chris Echegaray
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
A team of profilers from New Jersey has also shown interest in the disappearance of Molly (Bish). John J. Kelly, 50, an M.D. and president of New Jersey-based STALK, which stands for System To Apprehend Lethal Killers, has kept abreast of the case.
Dr. Kelly, who has profiled several serial killers, including a serial murderer in Columbus, Miss., said once he read of Molly's disappearance he knew that it was an abduction. “When women run away, they usually take a purse,” he said. “When I read that her purse was left behind, I knew this girl did not run off.”
Dr. Kelly, who is part of a six-member profiling team, said that in all likelihood Molly was being watched. “He did not stumble upon her. He knew his stuff. He was watching her,” Dr. Kelly said. “This person is visually oriented. He enjoys the outdoors, more of a fisherman, and probably does not work. He'll probably have a background of female abuse, lewd behavior, has exposed himself when he was younger and he may be known as a Peeping Tom.”
Dr. Kelly said there has been a bizarre pattern of attempted abductions and attacks on women near ponds and waterways throughout the state. He said women from Wales, Walpole, Westwood, and Weymouth have been attacked or killed in the past several years.
“Most recently a woman was assaulted in Wales. She fended him off with a hammer and her dog,” Dr. Kelly said of a recent assault on a 34-year-old woman.
“All these incidents were out by the woods near a pond in a secluded section,” he said. “All of them start with W's. Too many coincidences. Police may be dealing with some kind of outdoors, schizophrenic type of person.”
====
Maritime Missy
Posted - 6/22/2008 12:56:00 AM
4 comments:
**John Allore said...
MM: The Bish case is very familiar to me... and it is cold. I can't understand why investigators are not reaching out for help. But that is really their problem isn't it.
JJA
**Maritime Missy said...
John...do you think it would be worthwhile to contact S.T.A.L.K to see if they would do a profile for Theresa's case?
And yes...you're right about this cold case being their problem. As much as I'd personally love to go in-depth with every cold case... there has to be boundaries... otherwise...our own life would cease to exist.
**Anonymous said...
Molly Bish's site:
http://www.mollybish.org/
[Anon]
**Anonymous said...
MM, I don't see what there is to lose by contacting S.T.A.L.K. Go for it...of course with John's approval.
[Anon]
------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 2008
Let The Demon Go
Skeletal remains in Wilmington and the possible resolution of a Carrboro cold-case?
My friend Bill Wildman points me to a story in yesterday's Wilmington paper about skeletal remains of two women found in April along Carolina Beach road and the possibility that one set of remains may be those of Deborah Key. Recall that Deborah Key went missing in 1997 from a billiard hall/bar in Carrboro. Key was last seen next to her car in the Bank of America parking lot next to the billiard hall with Andrew Dalzell, the only suspect ever questioned in the case. In 2004 police extracted a confession from Dalzell who said he lost control, murdered Key and buried the body in Wilmington. Judge Wade Barber later threw out the confession and Dalzell walked free.
I guess it's also germane to the discussion - and since it has been a while that I've mentioned it - to say in 2000-ish I bought the house from the Dalzell's that Andrew was living in at the time Deborah disappeared. Not long after, police showed up and went through the place tooth-and-comb looking for any trace evidence of Key. They didn't find anything.
Now word from Wilmington, and another glimmer of hope for the friends and family of Deborah.
Let's begin by saying that law enforcement looking at the two sets of remains don't believe that one of them is Deborah Key. Police think more likely the decomposed bodies are those of Allison Jackson-Foy and Angela Nobles Rothen, who vanished almost a year apart in the summers of 2006 and 2007. We are told that "scattered remains" were found in and near a shallow grave, behind an abandoned Mexican restaurant, and that local forensics experts have positively identified them as women. Now the remains have been sent to Texas for positive DNA identification.
I won't beat-up on why our State police lab can't properly process the remains: The State Bureau is still working on lab upgrades: ya, I think we've been fed that one for the last 10 years.
Ok, so maybe I will beat-up on the SBI. Friends of Debbie Key? Remember back in the 90s when a local lab processed underwear that was found in Dalzell's car and came back with indeterminate results? You might wanna have that evidence retested by an independent, outside source.
Now back to the skeletons in the Wilmington closet. Though my interest is peaked, I have a hard time rationalizing one of them is Key. For me to go there; one of them is Deborah, the other is probably Jackson-Foy or Rothen, and Mr. Dalzell is responsible for both their deaths. So, in 1997 Mr. Dalzell goes to Wilmington and buries Key behind the restaurant (I would want to know what that restaurant was in 1997, and what it was to Mr. Dalzell, if anything). Cut forward nine years... Dalzell has endured the arrest and the case gets thrown out, he is off the hook. Nevertheless, he returns to Wilmington, murders again and buries the second body in the exact same place he left Key nine years prior. Then in the Spring of 2008, he agrees to go on the record on television's NC Wanted and cool-as-a-cucumber talks about it all and the duress he has suffered.
Andrew Dalzell, you are quite a tweaker.
It's a plot lifted from Bones, but I don't find that probable.
Now maybe I'm operating under some personal bias here. The Key case messed me up bad. Some of you know about some of this, I wrote about it in a piece called Bad Dream House , but there's more I've never discussed (at least I think I've never discussed? What-the-hell, I'll discuss it again). The billiard hall, Sticks and Stones where Deborah was last seen? In early 2001 my ex-wife took over that space and ran a retail childrens' clothing store called Chicken Noodle Soup out of it. I would pull into the parking lot every day, right up to the spot where there were flowers placed where Deborah was last seen. I would work in that store on weekends. I used to carry a photo of Debbie in my car, I finally worked up the courage to throw it away (sorry Deb, but I think you'd get the reason).
So you can see why I might have finally had enough of the Deborah Key case.
It gets worse. It's been some time, but I'm not going to embellish the following, just the facts. So we're living in the house. Early one morning my ex-wife and I are awoken by a pounding on the front door about 5:00 am. Bam-bam-bam! I go to the front door and I can see out the window the red and blue flash of a police cruiser. Bam-bam-bam! I open the door. A County deputy is shining a Maglite in my eyes, "Everything alright in here?"
Yes, everything's alright, what's the problem?
We got a 911 call from your house.
911? No one called 911, we're all asleep.
Sir, we got a 911 call from inside this house.
Officer, my wife and I are asleep, my kids are four and one, they didn't make the call.
Alright, sorry to disturb you.
That's a true story. I don't know what that meant. I don't know what that meant to the police... some sort of process error? I don't know what that meant for Deborah Key. I do know what it meant for me and my family; we had to sell the house, and within six months we were gone.
Concerning the bones in the woods in Wilmington? Deborah's family and friends are smart people, over 11 years they have learned to play this game. So I will say this: it is very wise - it is imperative - to keep Deborah's case in the news. I would go to any length to keep the media informed of all possibilities, however unlikely. Let the public and law enforcement judge whether the theory has any merit. And if one of those sets of remains turns out to be Deborah? That's The Probable Impossible.
Posted by John Allore - 6/22/2008 09:02:00 AM
6 comments:
**Bill Widman said...
Thank you John.
No, I don't believe that one set of these bones belongs to Debbie. (I could be wrong.)
What I do believe is in keeping her story in the news.
I never heard, until now, about the (supposed) 911 call from your house.
I am sorry the case has upset you so much, but I will always appreciate how you have responded to it.
**Maritime Missy said...
John...we had a similar 9-1-1 experience. It was a Saturday afternoon when two RCMP cruisers arrived at our door saying they received three 9-1-1 hangups from inside our house. We told them everything was fine and nobody had made a call. Like proper police officers, they came inside anyway and spent 10-15 minutes investig
...Sue Sutherland est encore avec l'investigation
C'est vrai. Sue et moi, nous avons des différences en arrière. Mais maintenant c'est le temps pour mettre des différences en arrière et travail ensemble. A vous que j'ai offensé, et a Sue, j'appologize pour mes errors (vraiment, j'ai fait beaucoup des errors, c'est la vie).
La réalité est ceci : La Sûreté du Québec sont l'organisation avec les meilleures ressources pour résoudre le crime. Mais ils ne veulent pas de le faire. Moi? Plus en plus je veux concentrer de les plus grandes questions de la justice, ou rein du tout. Seulement les choses plue simple - un cafe dans un bistro, le cinéma, mes enfants. La personne a équipé mieux pour résoudre le crime est Sue. Elle parle la langue, elle est au Québec, elle a une soif pour l'enquette.
Je voudrai que vous la donnerez toute votre assistance. Si vous avez n'importe quelle information sur la mort de Theresa Allore envoyer votre information à Sue:
Sue Sutherland
CP 45 Succursale Lennoxville
Sherbrooke J1M 1Z3
Canada
ou
justice4theresa@hotmail.com
Tel: 514-264-7830
("Mme Espiegle", S.V.P. fais le contact avec Sue)
Merci T.R.
Posted by John Allore 5/01/2008 06:53:00 AM
1 comment:
**Anonymous said...
Welcome back Ms Sutherland.
Anon
------------------------------
MONDAY, MAY 05, 2008
What's more important--a Confession or a Conviction?
Anon alerted to me a news story about Iris L. Brown--a woman who was kidnapped, strangled and dumped along Interstate 89 in 1976. For 32 years, her family didn't know what happened to her until a dying man in a Butner, NC, federal prison was offered immunity in return for the details of her death.
William Posey was sentenced to life in prison in 1980 for kidnapping her but never owned up to the murder. Cold case investigators and Ms. Brown's family figured it was more important to find out what happened to her than getting a conviction for her murder. Their gamble paid off. They can at least put to rest all those questions in their mind. And since Posey is already serving a life sentence for another murder and is terminally ill, there didn't seem to be any advantage to trying to bring him to trial for Iris Brown's murder.
I'm curious to find out what you readers think about trading off immunity for a confession. At what point, if any, would you put that offer on the table if one of your family members were killed and you had a suspect for the murder?
Here's the link to the rest of the newspaper article:
[Ailing inmate's confession solves 1976 murder
William Posey, in prison for kidnapping victim, admits strangling Iris Brown
Brown, then 27, disappeared in 1976
Police plan to search for body, but Posey's description isn't detailed
"We knew he was the killer," Brown's sister says
BURLINGTON, Vermont (AP) -- For 32 years, Iris L. Brown's family lived in limbo, not knowing what happened to her after she was kidnapped in 1976.
Iris Brown was 27 when she disappeared in 1976. A dying inmate has confessed to her murder.
Now, they know, police said Tuesday.
The man convicted of kidnapping her, now seriously ill in a prison medical center, has finally confessed to strangling her and dumping her remains along Interstate 89.
Offered immunity by cold-case investigators, William J. Posey, 61, told Burlington police that he killed Brown, 27, after he lured her into his car with a false story and then tried to talk her into helping him sell cocaine. He strangled her after an argument broke out, he said.
A search is planned, although Posey was unable to give more than a general idea of the location in Vermont where the body was dumped, authorities said.
" 'Closure' is a word that people reach for in situations like this," said Brown's sister, Roslyn Brown, 52, of Enosburg. "It does not mean a terrible experience comes to an end. For over 32 years, our family has suffered through an incredible gamut of emotions.
"We knew he was the killer," she said. "We just didn't know the when, the how, the where, the why."
Posey was sentenced to life for Brown's kidnapping and later pleaded guilty to the 1980 murder of an Illinois woman. He was interviewed by investigators last week at the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina.
Suffering from a vascular disease, he is under treatment in a section reserved for terminal patients.
He shed a single tear as he told Detective Lt. Emmet Helrich and Detective Brad Trombley that his previous story wasn't true. Helrich had made a similar effort five years ago, without any luck.
Brown was last seen leaving her Burlington apartment with Posey, who told her he'd gotten a telegram from her boyfriend saying he was to be released early from a prison in Connecticut.
His previous story was that they had driven partway to the Connecticut prison, getting as far as Springfield, Massachusetts. He said he turned around and returned, leaving her in Massachusetts, after finding out the boyfriend wasn't getting out after all.
Now, he admits that the story about the boyfriend was a ruse and he wanted to get Brown involved in selling drugs, detectives said.
"After a little bit, a couple questions, he told us the events," Trombley said.
Joy Hopkins, a friend of Brown's, shared an emotional hug with Brown's sister at police headquarters Tuesday and said Brown would not have been interested in dealing cocaine.
"This cocaine thing, she was not a cocaine user; she was not a drug user," Hopkins said Tuesday. "That should be out there right now."
The investigators made the trip to North Carolina carrying letters from county and federal prosecutors saying he wouldn't be tried if he confessed.
"It wasn't a hard call," Chittenden County State's Attorney T.J. Donovan said. "It came down to giving her family the opportunity to find out what happened. He's already serving a life sentence."]
====
Maritime Missy
Posted - 5/05/2008 01:23:00 AM
4 comments:
**John Allore said...
I'd take the confession in exchange for immunity any day. JJA
**Maritime Missy said...
I'm inclined to agree. I'd take the confession. A trial only confirms the confession. (Don't get me wrong...I'd still like to see a murderer behind bars...but if he's already there...what does a trial accomplish??)
**Bill Widman said...
Finding the remains of a loved one is important to me. Sometimes the killer is the only who knows where the body is. I'm sure anyone in that situation would be willing to cut some slack in exchange for that info.
In the case of a man who's already convicted and terminally ill, there doesn't seem much point in another conviction anyway.
Every day I wonder if today's the day I get a call telling me they found a skeleton somewhere that they have a positive ID on.
I'd love to have a place to go to remember Debbie besides a parking lot in Carrboro.
It would sure be a lot easier to forgive a killer if he tells us what we want to know.
**Raging Ranter said...
I'm basically just aping what has already been said. But he's already been incarcerated life, and he's terminally ill. This is the last chance to solve the crime and find answers. The immunity offer is simply a tool used to pry loose some vital information. It certainly isn't an exoneration of the murderer. No killer will be turned loose as the result of this, yet answers will be found. I say every effort should be made to get the confession and VERIFY it so that the family will have answers. His immunity is a side-note at this point - he likely wouldn't live long enough to see a trial anyway.
The Green River Killer, Gary Leon Ridgeway, was granted immunity from the death penalty in exchange for details leading to the recovery of remains of numerous victims. It was more galling in that he was NOT terminally ill, and he WAS gaining something tangible from the deal (he was being allowed to live). Yet the prosecutors and the victims families felt it was worth it, in order to get as many answers and recover as many remains as possible.
------------------------------
TUESDAY, MAY 06, 2008
Don't you hate it when this happens
Hello John,
My name is xxxx yyyyyyyy. I am an intern at Dateline NBC and I am currently doing research on stories similar to your sister's.
I would love to talk to you briefly and find out the status/any developments in your story.
Is there a number where I can contact you?
If it is preferred, you may contact me here at Dateline. The phone number is (818) xxx-xxxx.
Thank you. I look forward to speaking with you.
Posted by John Allore - 5/06/2008 06:20:00 PM
2 comments:
**Anonymous said...
What else is there to say? Wow!!
Anon
**Bill Widman said...
Sometimes I hate it.
Sometimes I love it.
Sometimes there's just no way to predict how it's gonna go at first contact.
The question on the bottom line is,
"What have I got to lose?"
------------------------------
WEDNESDAY, MAY 07, 2008
Dateline NBC
I'm afraid I was being slightly sarcastic yesterday. Don't get too excited about this. I have fielded many calls from these types of folks - they rarely pan out.
1. It's an intern (I hope to God not a summer intern); which means they are the bottom-feeder of the news organization. They've been sent to troll the blogsphere for anything interesting and they found Theresa.
2. Half the time these folks don't know what-the-hell they're even looking for, they're running in five places at once and have the attention span of a Golden Retriever.
But I say, turn a disadvantage into an advantage. I will tell them what they're looking for. My job is to spin a story so compelling that it just might make it to the boss' desk. Because they are a national, American news organization, there is one aspect of this story I am going to pitch to them (and it ain't Allore-Camirand-Dube). You're smart cookies, can you guess what angle I'm going to play up? Here's a hint... Anon touched on it again recently.
Posted by John Allore - 5/07/2008 06:58:00 AM
4 comments:
**Bill Widman said...
John - Sometimes I never know if you're kidding or not.
Having had recently a learning experience myself with a news team, an example was made of how they pretend to be on your side to get your story, then they make it into their story.
In the end, I and my friends have agreed that the important thing is that the story is told.
They may not tell the story the way we would like, but at least they get it out there.
I say go for it, John.
By the way, some of my favorite dogs have been golden retrievers.
**John Allore said...
Golden Retrievers: Big, Dumb, Hopelessly Loyal and Lovable.
JJA
**Doreen said...
John,
I agree with Bill......just go for it!
Doreen D.
**Raging Ranter said...
Theresa's death was so long ago. Any type of media attention you can get at this point is worth it.
I just finished reading John Walsh's book Tears of Rage not too long ago. He went into great detail about his love-hate relationship with the media. On the one hand, he despised many of the reporters, and especially their bosses, who seemed only interested in exploiting the story for their own selfish ends. On the other, he realized early on that they were a vital tool in his desperate search for his son. In fact they were the only tool he had at his disposal that didn't cost a fortune.
Make the best use of every bit of media attention that comes along.
------------------------------
FRIDAY, MAY 09, 2008
When the whole town knows your kink
I read this story this morning. Thought about it. Decided not to post it. Then the Mayor wrote me about it, "John didn't know if I should bother you with this, but I knew you'd want to know".
I like how JK Rowling writes how whenever Muggles feel irrational despair, the Dementors are nearby. I have not felt right the last 24 hours, but I have every reason to be in good spirits. Maybe this is the reason.
I did not know Irina Yarmolenko was from Carrboro, and I have selfish reasons for posting this. I want to know how she died. Someone please tell me the Mount Holly Police aren't handling this on their own.
The Charlotte Observer
For two hours Thursday night, an extended UNC Charlotte family stood in a semicircle, telling stories about Irina "Ira" Yarmolenko who grew up in Chapel Hill. The Ira (pronounced EE-ra) who left sticky notes with funny messages on sinks and above toilets to brighten her roommates' day.
The Ira who spent half an hour in a cardboard "gingerbread" house built for kids, making statues out of Play-Doh.
The Ira who spent Sunday mornings sipping coffee and talking about how she would change the world.
The 20-year-old died on Monday in what police now say is a homicide. She died of asphyxiation, her body discovered next to her car on the banks of the Catawba River, Mount Holly Police said Thursday.
They named no suspects and have no motive. Investigators are trying to figure out what happened between 10:50 a.m., when Yarmolenko was last seen at her job at a coffee shop near UNCC, and 1:18 p.m., when a woman riding a personal watercraft reported finding her body.
In a news conference Thursday, Mount Holly Police Chief David Belk wouldn't reveal whether Yarmolenko had been strangled or smothered, saying only that she died from a lack of oxygen. Belk also wouldn't say whether police had found marks or wounds on her body.
It is the latest in a string of high-profile killings of N.C. college students this year. They include the slaying of UNC Chapel Hill Student Body President Eve Carson and Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato. On Feb. 1, police believe a UNCC student, Simrit Gill, was killed in a domestic violence homicide.
Why someone would kill Yarmolenko, a bubbly college sophomore, continued to puzzle investigators and the more than 300 people gathered around UNCC's Belk Tower Thursday.
"Ira, you can't describe in words," her cousin, Natasha Deyneka, of Raleigh, told the crowd. "She was selfless and pure and amazing, and you can only describe her with superlatives. Any of you, if you had a bad day, she would be there with a bouquet of flowers and a hug for you."
Authorities said Yarmolenko didn't appear to have a reason to drive to Mount Holly, where her body and blue Saturn sedan were found. The car appeared to have traveled about a half mile past the Stowe Family YMCA and down a steep embankment, where it struck a tree stump.
Yarmolenko was found outside the car, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, black skirt and athletic shoes, Belk said. In the hours before her death, she'd been at a credit union and then at the coffee shop.
Belk said police had "some strong leads," but didn't go into detail about them. He said his department would let the public know if there was a suspect description, but stressed that "there's nothing to indicate there's someone out there that's stalking or chasing people."
Hours later, at the memorial, Yarmolenko's brother, Pavel, had different messages for people who'd been touched by his sister's murder.
"The person who killed my sister, he's in some ways a byproduct of the system that we live in, and we have to change it. You all have to make a difference now," he said. "I hope when you go home tonight, that you will tell everyone you love them. Because I didn't get a chance at all. I didn't get a chance to tell my sister that I loved her."
Anyone with information should call Mount Holly Police at 704-827-4343.
----------------------------
Pavel's message. That's not uncommon. That's the first thing Pierre told me to do after his second daughter died. Tell them you love them. I do it about 4 -5 times a day; they're getting a little unsettled by it. Oh well...
Posted by John Allore - 5/09/2008 05:09:00 PM
5 comments:
**Anonymous said...
Thanks for that important story, John. And don't worry about the eye rolling and weird looks your daugthers give you when you tell them how you feel...you should see some of the looks on my boys' faces, but that isn't going to change a thing...it was good advice from your friend, Pierre.
[Anon]
**Maritime Missy said...
I am sad. Sad that another young woman has been murdered. Sad that her brother didn't get a chance to say goodbye. Sad about everything and nothing.
**Bill Widman said...
Once again a beautiful young woman from the Chapel Hill area is murdered, for no apparent reason.
I never knew Irina, but I was able to talk to some people who did. It's a familiar story, perhaps too familiar.
She was a good person, never did any harm, loved by everyone, witty, charming, good natured, and why the hell would anyone want to kill her?
Irina was buried yesterday at the Chapel Hill Cemetery. There was quite a turn out. I can tell she will be well remembered.
We search for answers, knowing we may not like what we find.
**Anonymous said...
Guestbook for Irina:
http://www.legacy.com/
[Anon]
**Anonymous said...
Irina's site:
http://www.irayarmolenko.com/
[Anon]
------------------------------
SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2008
Two different states, three similar disappearances
I come across a lot of missing person and cold case stories as a result of this blog. Every once in awhile, something triggers my attention. I just read a story about Mary Cronin and I was struck by the similarities between her disappearance and those of the two young women who went missing in New Hampshire. You could almost switch the names and swear it was the same story.
Mary Cronin, Omaha, Nebraska
“Mary worked part time at Cappy's Bar at 108th and Mockingbird in Omaha (Nebraska). It was April 12, 1992, she was in the parking lot about 1:30 in the morning after the bar closed with a man. That was the last time she was seen alive. Mary's purple Cadillac found a few hours later... A few miles down the road in Sarpy County in a ditch...near 96th and Harrison. It was left running, lights on, door open with her purse still in the front seat. Mary just vanished. Her car just towed away.
SOURCE: http://www.action3news.com/
Brianna Maitland, Montgomery, Vermont
Maitland was last seen at her dishwashing job at the Black Lantern Inn in Montgomery, Vermont, between 11:20 p.m. and midnight on March 19, 2004…Maitland's vehicle, a pale green four-door 1985 Oldsmobile sedan, was found abandoned on March 20, off East Berkshire Road and Route 118, across Dutchburn Farm Road, about a mile outside of Montgomery. It was parked partially inside an abandoned barn. Two of Maitland's uncashed paychecks were on the front seat of the car. She also left behind all her clothing, her medicine, driver's license, her makeup, and her contact lenses. She hasn't been seen since.
Maura Murray, Woodsville, New Hampshire
During the early evening of February 9, 2004, Maura Murray ran her car into a ditch off the Wild Ammonoosuc Road in Woodsville, New Hampshire. When police arrived, Maura had vanished.
====
Maritime Missy
Posted - 5/11/2008 02:16:00 AM
5 comments:
**Anonymous said...
From the link in the story of Mary Cronin, these words... "Mistakes made early in the investigation may have let the killer slip away..." tie so many cases together.
[Anon]
**Raging Ranter said...
I've been following those New Hampshire cases. Maura Murray's is the strangest of all. She was spotted in her car, yet when the tow truck came for her awhile later, she was gone. Disappeared without a trace.
The frightening thing is not so much mistakes that may or may not have been made at first, but how the leads have just dried up completely, with seemingly no chance of ever getting it solved. The police are at a total loss.
Brianna Maitland was more of a "high risk" victim, having association with gang members and drug dealers, and had dabbled in methamphetamine. It seems likely that her killer(s) is somehow related to this.
**Raging Ranter said...
Another Omaha disappearance that has always bugged me is this one.
http://members.cox.net/
I'm sure you've blogged about this one before. Jason Jolkowski disappeared in broad daylight from his Omaha, NE meighbourhood while walking to meet his ride for work. Not a trace of him has ever been found, and to this day the police have no clue as to why he disappeared.
**Loo said...
In Quebec there's a couple cases like this too.. no trace, at all.
**Anonymous said...
Information re: Maura Murray
http://southshorexpress.net/
'Anon'
------------------------------
SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2008
Every Picture Tells a Story ...
[Two photos: John Allore graduation]
Don't It.
Posted by John Allore - 5/11/2008 04:07:00 PM
6 comments:
**Anonymous said...
WOW!!! I absolutely take my hat off to you John.
Hey, where's your mortarboard?
Anon :-)
**Maritime Missy said...
WOOHOOO!!! *clap clap clap* Congratulations John on yet another personal achievement.
**Bill Widman said...
Way to go, John!
Watch out, World!
**B said...
good for you kiddo
you look old
I hope that isn't your school behind you
I think you lost your cap and tassel
seriously, congratulations
stay out of the sun
Love
B
**John Allore said...
Bobby Milk: I've got an 11 year old, I am old!
**Sharron Prior website said...
WEll! Look at you Mr. John Allore!
"CONGRATULATIONS"...I Love that second photo! with your eyes peeking out behind...
"Report of the Public Inquiry Commission appointed to inquire into the Surete du Quebec...."
"Check out your brother Theresa!
Doreen
------------------------------
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2008
Seemed about a hundred years ago
I'm skippin meals, gettin down to fight weight (that's for you, B). Seriously, I'm tired of feeling old. I've lost 15 lbs, and I'm going for another 15. I wanna be that skinny kid again.
Tomorrow I'm headed for the beach for 4 days with just me and my girls. Don't try to find me, I'll be incommunicado (alright, I'll be in the Canadian Hole).
If been up and down lately. Despair is a killer. Up now, but I'm totally avoiding the issue of having to go back home next week and help my parents downsize into a condo. That's right, I'm the guy packing up Theresa's room and bringing it South (the bed, the bike, the books...)
I'm avoiding the whole thought that this is too depressing. So I'll just pretend it's no big deal - what a lie. Oh well, if I can't be emotionally honest, at least I'll look good. I'm starting to look gaunt... another 6 miles a day, black coffee and cold tea and I'll be back to my old, old self.
I'm really tired. I'm gonna run on the beach, make sand castles on the beach, baseball, football, reading... on the beach and not much else. I'm gonna let the wind and sand wash away about three years worth of remorse and regret.
Then I'm gonna come back and do it all over again, from the beginning. But with a bigger smile.
Posted by John Allore - 5/14/2008 06:36:00 PM
5 comments:
**Bill Widman said...
Sounds like an excellent plan to me, John.
I hope you succeed in all the goals you've mentioned.
Think of me when you're on the beach.
I'll be with you in spirit!
**Raging Ranter said...
Don't get too skinny. Sometimes a little fat reserve comes in handy.
**Loo said...
Canadian Hole..
I find you very harsh!
**Anonymous said...
That's just his sense of humor.
**Loo said...
I guess i just cannot get use to it!!
------------------------------
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 04, 2008
Don't say a word, Don't say anything
Dear Readers, sadly you are faced with a summer of silly and frivolous posts. Not that there isn't plenty going on. Far from it. I just can't talk about it. When things start happening, sadly the blog works to the detriment of making any progress. Some examples:
1. Sue Sutherland is hard at work tracking down leads on Theresa's murder investigation. We are pretty much convinced that answers to the unsolved case lie in the Eastern Townships, and that there are still people alive who have pieces to the puzzle, but no one has bothered to ask their opinions. Sue and I stay in close contact. But she doesn't tell me everything. In fact, we agree that she shouldn't tell me everything to protect the integrity of what she is doing. But please, if you have any information, contact Sue.
2. About a year ago, I reconciled with Champlain College in Lennoxville, the school Theresa was attending before she died. I can't go into details just yet. I will say I no longer have a beef with the institution: the key players from that era at the school have either retired or died. And I will not hold on to hate and the expense of my mental health.
Champlain and my family are working on something. I just can't talk about it. It's a good thing, and an announcement will be eminent.
3. Dateline NBC: We finally made contact. I gave them some pieces of the puzzle to look at. It seemed to tweek their interest. We shall see if they run with it. It would be so nice to get some U.S. coverage.
4. The murder of Irina Yarmolenko, a local student who was attending UNC Charlotte... this case keeps getting more interesting.
Keep watching the skies!
Posted by John Allore - 6/04/2008 07:01:00 AM
8 comments:
**Bill Widman said...
"Don't say anything"?
Gee, I hope this doesn't mean you don't want any comments.
A summer of silly and frivolous posts is something I can deal with. I consider creative silliness to be good therapy when dealing with so much serious stuff.
Believe me, having news you want to report, but can't, is something I can relate to very much right now.
I'm still mad at Champlain College for the way they treated your family during a time of tragedy. Is that alright? If you're not mad at them anymore, can I be mad for you? I don't mind, really. It's the least I can do.
I totally agree with you on the Yarmolenko story. It keeps getting more interesting the more we learn about it.
**John Allore said...
Yes, anyone can be mad for me, I can't control how people feel. Nor do I regret, or will I take back anything I said or did concerning Champlain in the past.
But let's move forward.
JJA
**Bill Widman said...
Aye aye, Captain.
Full speed ahead!
**Anonymous said...
Aye! I won't take this ABUSE much longer!
**Anonymous said...
I had a feeling that Dateline deal would come through, John...that's good news, and good to have some US coverage.
[Anon]
**B said...
when will you be guest hosting the View?
B
**Anonymous said...
Speaking of Dateline and such shows, on Saturday June 14th at 10pm, on CBS 48 hours there will be a broadcast about the disappearances of both Tara Grinstead (http://www.findtara.com/) and Jennifer Kesse (http://jenniferkesse.com/)
Anon
**John Allore said...
B:
It was actually going to be this week but Michelle Obama took my spot.
J
------------------------------
SATURDAY, JUNE 07, 2008
Could the Cindy Halliday case be connected to Theresa's?
According to the RCMP’s website about the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS), links have been made in over 88,000 cases which means that “there are a large number of serial offenders committing crimes against people on a regular basis in Canada.” (http://www.rcmp.ca/techops/
Dr. Kim Rossmo, a former Vancouver Police detective inspector who developed the geographic profiling system, said that in order for a crime to be linked--there has to be more similarities than differences.
Earlier this week, as I was watching the cold case of Cindy Halliday on Court TV's Crime Files with Sue Sgambati, those two statements were echoing in the back of mind. Could Cindy’s case be connected with Theresa’s, Louise Camirand’s or possibly Manon Dubé’s cases?
Cindy was murdered in 1992 near Barrie, Ontario. You can find info about her murder here:
http://www.simcoe.com/article/
http://www.simcoe.com/article/
By the end of the show, I thought there seemed to be more than a few similarities between Cindy’s and Theresa’s murders.
Similarities
- Cindy was a 17-year-old brunette.
- She went missing on Easter Monday 1992. (Louise went missing in March 1977; Manon Dube was found on Good Friday 1978; Theresa was found on Good Friday 1979; )
- Cindy was picked up hitchhiking in a remote and small-town area of Ontario (Midland-Waverly--just outside Barrie. Major cottage country--similar to the Townships)
- Witnesses report seeing her accept a ride from a guy driving a 1979-1981 Chrysler LeBaron or Dodge Diplomat (I think the tv show mentioned something about it being maroon in colour...but I'm not certain. You can find photos of a 1979 LeBaron here: http://www.angelfire.com/ca/
- Her body was discovered off the side of a remote logging/concession road
- Her wallet was discovered in a pond/bog at the side of another nearby secluded road
- Her jacket was found 10 days after the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) already conducted an extensive search of that same area. (The police say it's definitely a possibility that the killer returned to the crime scene and placed it there after he knew the area had already been searched.)
- Her body was found in a deteriorated state two months after she went missing. (I think the only thing they found was a skull.)
- Other than a jacket, most of her clothing was never found. (The OPP assume animals took off with it.)
- Forensic science hasn't been any help in producing additional evidence.
Differences
- The murder scene was in Ontario--not Quebec (but the offender could have moved between 1979 and 1992)
- Cindy was apparently stabbed. Theresa’s cause of death isn’t known for certain but it’s very possible she was strangled. Louise Camirand was strangled. (Police speculate Cindy was stabbed as she tried to get away from the killer while still in the car...and sensing that he was losing control of his victim, her killer slashed her.)
My questions:
1. The OPP said they fed Cindy’s case details into ViCLAS but it didn’t generate any “hits”. When did they do this? Cindy was murdered in 1992. Theresa’s info and Louise Camirand’s case details weren’t submitted to ViCLAS until 2004 and 2005 respectively. If the OPP checked ViCLAS prior to 2004, I’m not surprised they wouldn’t have seen a possible “link” between the three cases. Another possible reason why ViCLAS didn’t return a “hit” could be due to the fact that the Sûreté du Quebec (SQ) would have entered the information in French. I’m sure the OPP investigators aren’t francophones.
2. Did the SQ do a good job in answering the ViCLAS questions in order to enter the case details of Theresa? I don’t know exactly what information the ViCLAS database requires but I would imagine some of the questions the police would have to answer include:
- What is the primary motive for the Theresa’s murder?
- What type of person was Theresa Allore?
- When did the crime take place? (Morning? Afternoon?)
- Was the body moved or was it found where the crime took place?
Did the SQ even have enough unbiased or informed case details to even feed into the system?
3. The OPP said that they entered the description of the killer's car into some kind of national vehicle database. If the OPP could do this, why can't the SQ enter the details about the car linked to Louise Camirand's murder in the same database? (Long shot...but...what if the OPP checked to see what people in the Eastern Townships had a LeBaron or Diplomat that matched the description of Cindy's killer's car?)
4. Let's suppose there is a link between Theresa's killer and Cindy's. What would cause the killer to choose the Barrie area to "set up shop"? Could he have moved for work? (There is a military base near the Townships and CFB Borden is not too far from where Cindy’s remains were found.) What industries would attract workers from the Townships to Simcoe County, Ontario? Is there a person who lived in the Townships with a family connection to Barrie?
Of course, I’m not a professional but it doesn’t hurt to ask the questions. Maybe there’s someone out there who remembers a family member or friend behaving strangely during the times these murders were committed. If someone remembers something, then I strongly suggest contacting the OPP, CrimeStoppers or even johnallore@gmail.com.
====
Maritime Missy
Posted - 6/07/2008 02:50:00 AM
3 comments:
**Anonymous said...
Great post, MM. We must not let time, distance or MO stop us from linking cases...all possibilites must be looked at. At the very least, you are bringing attention to another cold case. And, no, it certainly doesn't hurt to ask questions.
Anon
**Bill Widman said...
Congratulations Missy
You've picked up on another cold case, after 30 years, with a possible connection with Theresa.
What would we do without you?
Someone once said to me, "The only dumb questions are the ones you don't ask."
I figured this person has never heard some of the questions I've heard.
In cases like this, however, all questions are good questions.
**Anonymous said...
All questions are good questions, and whatever gets people talking about any of these cold cases, at this point, that might be the only way that any of these cases get solved.
[Anon]
------------------------------
THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2008
Some Thoughts on Cold Case Investigations
Remember in cartoons when the Road Runner would be on the edge of a cliff in one of those desert landscapes? The Coyote would chip away the last remaining connection to Terra Firma, but instead of the Road Runner falling, it was the Coyote that would zip out of sight?
This is a well known principal in animation, something Walt Disney termed The Probable Impossible; it doesn't seem to make sense, but somehow it has its own intuitive logic. The Probable Impossible is what allows Mickey Mouse to walk on the ceiling, it's why Bugs Bunny always narrowly avoids destruction, and what leads Daffy Duck to so many ignoble endings.
I suggest that the Probable Impossible is what keeps so many cold cases alive, and what leads - in some cases - to their ultimate resolution. And by that I mean ultimately it takes a little douse of creativity to solve these crimes.
If you know anything about criminal investigation you have heard of the importance of the First 48. The initial 48 hours after a crime is committed is critical to the investigation, statistically it is within this time frame that most cases are solved. Beyond the First 48, the laws of diminishing returns suggest you have an increasingly limited chance of solving the crime as the hours stack up to oblivion.
The statistical significance embedded in the First 48, has lead to a reliance, if not a dependence, on the investigator being ultra-methodical and regimented in his or her investigative practices. We all know this from television; someone is murdered and the immediate response is to interview the family (statistics suggest that in roughly 80% of cases, a family member was responsible), rookie officers are sent to comb the streets, go house-to-house interviewing everyone in the neighborhood. All this is a low-lying fruit approach to investigation, and it makes good intuitive sense; work out from the center and cover all the logical bases.
Statistics would be against me, but I might also argue that this is the lazy approach to investigation. It is always good to be thorough, but at a certain point a good shot of creative thinking just might be the remedy to an investigation that is going nowhere. And here is the nut of my argument concerning crime solving and crime policy.
Public policy making goes like this: You have an academic hypothesis, let's say you think low-income Americans are more prone to eating exotic fruits and vegetables during the good times, and apples and oranges during hard times. You get a data set. You test your theory in good and bad times. You add a control variable (say high earning Americans, or Canadians). You get your answer. Indeed, with a 95% confidence level (meaning 5% of your test sample may be dead wrong, or prone to random error) low-income Americans eat apples and oranges when times are hard. You present your research, if you're lucky some Senator takes interest and introduces a bill subsidizing exotic fruits and vegetables, or giving exotic fruit food stamps to low-income Americans.
My point is it is always very broad, obvious, indefatigable research that gets the interest of policy makers. How could it be otherwise? They are elected officials and there's too much at stake for them to waste their reputations on half-baked ideas.
But the problem is, as time passes, cold cases and their potential resolutions are counting on an idea from left field. Cold cases lie on the margins, the fringes of reason, they are the dominion of the half-baked.
Remember that 5% that resided in the land of error or improbable? That's the kingdom of Gary Ridgway, Robert Pickton and Lee Boyd Malvo. It appeared statistically improbable that Ridgway could kill so many in such a small space over so many years, Green River must be several killers. How could Pickton go unnoticed for so long? Black snipers driving around DC, one of them a kid with a rifle in the trunk? Impossible. Today's outliers are tomorrow's trends.
When Theresa Allore disappeared, the conventional wisdom of the time suggested she was anywhere but the village of Compton where she lived. Check the border because she's made a run for the States. Interview students in the town of Lennoxville where she studied, research the city of Montreal where she came from. So where did she turn up? Dead in a ditch in Compton. At that point what was required was a radical re-adjustment of conventional wisdom and a reassessment of core assumptions. That never happened. And everyone associated with the investigation has suffered the worse for it in the ensuing 30 years.
Don't throw out logical crime-solving techniques. Statistics, confidence intervals, standard deviation; these all suggest that a methodical approach, in most cases, will lead to a successful resolution. But don't become a slave to them either. At a certain point in an investigation, the scales tip, you enter an alternate world where different rules apply. Increasingly you are at the mercy of the Probable Impossible, and you would be wise to re-evaluate everything you've done and reinvestigate under a fresh set of assumptions. You may ultimately find that what you were looking for was right under your nose, but how you will find it might require a spark of creative thinking.
Posted by John Allore 6/12/2008 05:12:00 AM
7 comments:
**Bill Widman said...
Hey John
I think you're on to something here.
Today I've talked to a reporter with Star-News in Wilmington. He's found an interesting parallel between Debbie Key and Allison Jackson-Foy. Both were last seen leaving a bar where people played pool. We talked about possible connections.
Half baked ideas are starting to make sense. I'm gonna be running with some of these. Who knows where they might lead?
Thanks for pointing that out.
**Maritime Missy said...
Fabulous post John. As you know, I'm all for creative thinking... those little flickers of light in the back of your brain that crave some oxygen and the light of day.
Creativity for procedure-prone investigators isn't the norm--it's the exception. When cold cases are resolved, it's usually by someone who looks at the facts in a completely different light. Someone who picks up on a minor incongruency in a witness statement or a crime scene photo and explores all the angles.
If investigators can combine their methodical approach with persistence and a creative spark...miracles happen. Leave no stone unturned. And when that's done...start looking at the pebbles and the leaves.
EVERY homicide NEEDS to be solved. As a citizen, I do not want to share my community with murderers because somebody got lazy or afraid.
**Maritime Missy said...
One more thing...you said that policy makers want statistics and research before making a decision. That's true. But what they really react to is a loud bunch of angry constituents with research and statistics. 500 potential lost votes and bad publicity get the politician's attention.
That's why the people of the Eastern Townships should tell their MPs and MLAs they want these cold cases solved. Murderers do not deserve a "pass" because law enforcement is understaffed, undertrained and underfunded. forget. Give our law enforcement agencies the resources they need to do their job. Give our communities peace of mind. Give the families of murdered citizens resolution.
**Anonymous said...
Yeah, great post, John, but MM, you must also be commended for the many great posts you have blogged over the last year...you have asked some very good questions and you have certainly presented some very creative ideas and some very interesting cases to look at...as parallels and examples of what can be done when someone cares or makes an effort. In cases, such as Theresa's, where there is apparently no DNA evidence to test using new technology, unless there is a confession, cases like these will only be solved by leaving no stone, pebble, leaf or out-there theory unturned.
[Anon]
**Maritime Missy said...
While we're handing out kudos Anon...take some for yourself. Your interest, support and regular comments make blogging worthwhile. (It's no fun blogging if nobody reads the posts or joins the discussion.) You've inspired a few of my posts yourself.
In fact, John has managed to assemble quite an eclectic and dedicated team. I know there are a lot of people working in the background on this case...there are lots of people who share our points of view and provide advice and support and I KNOW there are people out there who have something to share...but haven't found the courage or the words to do so yet. I highly recommend passing on your information to John. You'll get a good night's sleep knowing you did the right thing. :-)
**Bill Widman said...
I'm sorry, but I just can't walk away from this without handing out some kudos too.
John, Missy, Anon, you all make me feel like I'm in good company.
BTW - The reporter I've talked to today, who's name is Jim Ware, mentioned 'Bad Dream House' in the conversation.
I SWEAR, I did NOT bring it up!
This man is writing on the case of Allison Jackson-Foy, and the skeletons found in Wilmington, for the Star-News of Wilmington. Jim saw fit to compare the stories of Allison and Debbie, and I am pleased he wanted to discuss with me the possible connections between these two cases.
And yet, somehow, John's name comes up in the conversation. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
What I think is really cool is that, after I got off the phone with Jim, I go to WKT? and find this post. I have just experienced an example of what John was writing about.
Now how cool is that?
**Anonymous said...
Thank you, MM. Thank you, Bill. I do what I can...I wish I could do more.
Anon
------------------------------
FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2008
Chaos Theory
Chaos Theory has largely been a realm occupied by physics geeks and mathematicians. Our popular introduction to this phenomena of ordered-randomness was Jeff Goldblum's Doctor Ian Malcolm from the film Jurassic Park who so seductively demonstrated the theory's unstable properties by watching a droplet of water slide down the wrist of Laura Dern. Michael Crichton largely lifted the Malcolm character and his theories from James Gleick's 1987 Chaos: Making a New Science, which first popularised Chaos Theory for the layman.
An early pioneer on the subject, Edward Lorenz elegantly diagrammed variable sensitivity to initial conditions in 1972 as the "butterfly effect". A meteorologist, Lorenz wrote an early paper entitled Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas? The flapping of the butterfly's wings sets off a chain of events in a non-linear system, a small change in the initial condition, leading to a large - and seemingly random - disaster. The trajectory of change would have been quite different had the butterfly not flapped its wings.
Chaos Theory has slowly migrated from pure science to the social sciences. Though the subject has occasionally comes up for me in statistics and economics, my first academic introduction to Chaos Theory was in a class on organizational behavior. In it the professor boldly characterised chaos as responsible for not only the first space shuttle disaster, but as a potential predictor of the second shuttle crash. In this scenario NASA, its engineers, and its contractors are all variables in the disordered, non linear system. The poor weather, individual behavior, poor communication skills are all elements - though seemingly random "noise" - that are actually deterministic, with well defined statistical properties. Though there was certainly some randomness that acted in the event, a large amount of apparent randomness was actually predictable chaos that if properly identified, may have lead to an alternate outcome for the Challenger shuttle
Though Chaos Theory is slowly being embraced by the behavioral sciences, I have yet to see any practical application in criminal investigation. There should be. Variables in the non linear system would include the offender, the victim, police investigations, the environment where they all come in contact. The initial conditions: the offender's predisposition, victimology, everything leading up to the event. We know the outcome; so what could have changed the trajectory - the offender and the victim's path - had initial conditions been different? And what in all of this is randomness and "noise", those elements we can't control. And what is chaos, the seemingly random that we need to better understand to perfect techniques of crime prevention?
Posted by John Allore - 6/20/2008 05:20:00 AM
2 comments:
**Bill Widman said...
If you liked the character, Ian Malcolm, in the film 'Jurassic Park,' I think you will like him even better in the book, where he presents his 'Chaos Theory' with more elaboration.
Sadly, in the book, Dr. Malcolm doesn't survive to see a sequel.
I apppreciate how John had gone from explaining how things work in the cartoon world, to explaining such an advanced scientific theory. Who else do we know who can do that, from one blog post to the next, and still make perfect sense?
'Possibility vs. Probability' is the standard prescription in most detective work.
It is important to remember that the realm of possibility is not limited to the things we already know.
Good work, John!
**Anonymous said...
Yes, good work, John. For myself, I don't necessarily see a Chaos Theory that leads up to my assault in January 1977, I can pretty much see how things lined up...even in ways that I have never mentioned here on the blog, but that's from my point of view...where HE came from...well, that's still a mystery...
Anon
------------------------------
SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 2008
The Power of Profiling
S.T.A.L.K., INC. (System To Apprehend Lethal Killers) is a profiling team of professionals whose mission is to aid law enforcement in the apprehension of serial killers through a comprehensive profiling process. The team includes an MD—Dr. John Kelly; Dr. Edward Merski, the team's head psychologist; John Lewkowicz, a sex addiction specialist; Ruth Moore, a psychiatric nurse specialist; and homicide detective Frank Adamson, who worked on the Green River Killer case in the Pacific Northwest. Together, they have developed a pro bono profile for a Worcester, MA, serial killer (see below) as well as one for an Atlantic City serial killer.
The “Woodsman” profile, detailed in the newspaper article below, is particularly chilling—mostly because it resembles one that I’ve had floating around in my mind for quite some time now in connection with Theresa’s case. (FYI…The Woodsman is NOT Theresa’s killer. He wouldn’t be old enough. Police have named 38-year-old Alex F. Scesny as a suspect in the Massachusetts murders.)
STALK’s website, www.stalkinc.com/index.html, invites people to contact them to discuss a case. They promise to reply in five days.
====
Sunday, October 22, 2000
By Chris Echegaray
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
A team of profilers from New Jersey has also shown interest in the disappearance of Molly (Bish). John J. Kelly, 50, an M.D. and president of New Jersey-based STALK, which stands for System To Apprehend Lethal Killers, has kept abreast of the case.
Dr. Kelly, who has profiled several serial killers, including a serial murderer in Columbus, Miss., said once he read of Molly's disappearance he knew that it was an abduction. “When women run away, they usually take a purse,” he said. “When I read that her purse was left behind, I knew this girl did not run off.”
Dr. Kelly, who is part of a six-member profiling team, said that in all likelihood Molly was being watched. “He did not stumble upon her. He knew his stuff. He was watching her,” Dr. Kelly said. “This person is visually oriented. He enjoys the outdoors, more of a fisherman, and probably does not work. He'll probably have a background of female abuse, lewd behavior, has exposed himself when he was younger and he may be known as a Peeping Tom.”
Dr. Kelly said there has been a bizarre pattern of attempted abductions and attacks on women near ponds and waterways throughout the state. He said women from Wales, Walpole, Westwood, and Weymouth have been attacked or killed in the past several years.
“Most recently a woman was assaulted in Wales. She fended him off with a hammer and her dog,” Dr. Kelly said of a recent assault on a 34-year-old woman.
“All these incidents were out by the woods near a pond in a secluded section,” he said. “All of them start with W's. Too many coincidences. Police may be dealing with some kind of outdoors, schizophrenic type of person.”
====
Maritime Missy
Posted - 6/22/2008 12:56:00 AM
4 comments:
**John Allore said...
MM: The Bish case is very familiar to me... and it is cold. I can't understand why investigators are not reaching out for help. But that is really their problem isn't it.
JJA
**Maritime Missy said...
John...do you think it would be worthwhile to contact S.T.A.L.K to see if they would do a profile for Theresa's case?
And yes...you're right about this cold case being their problem. As much as I'd personally love to go in-depth with every cold case... there has to be boundaries... otherwise...our own life would cease to exist.
**Anonymous said...
Molly Bish's site:
http://www.mollybish.org/
[Anon]
**Anonymous said...
MM, I don't see what there is to lose by contacting S.T.A.L.K. Go for it...of course with John's approval.
[Anon]
------------------------------
SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 2008
Let The Demon Go
Skeletal remains in Wilmington and the possible resolution of a Carrboro cold-case?
My friend Bill Wildman points me to a story in yesterday's Wilmington paper about skeletal remains of two women found in April along Carolina Beach road and the possibility that one set of remains may be those of Deborah Key. Recall that Deborah Key went missing in 1997 from a billiard hall/bar in Carrboro. Key was last seen next to her car in the Bank of America parking lot next to the billiard hall with Andrew Dalzell, the only suspect ever questioned in the case. In 2004 police extracted a confession from Dalzell who said he lost control, murdered Key and buried the body in Wilmington. Judge Wade Barber later threw out the confession and Dalzell walked free.
I guess it's also germane to the discussion - and since it has been a while that I've mentioned it - to say in 2000-ish I bought the house from the Dalzell's that Andrew was living in at the time Deborah disappeared. Not long after, police showed up and went through the place tooth-and-comb looking for any trace evidence of Key. They didn't find anything.
Now word from Wilmington, and another glimmer of hope for the friends and family of Deborah.
Let's begin by saying that law enforcement looking at the two sets of remains don't believe that one of them is Deborah Key. Police think more likely the decomposed bodies are those of Allison Jackson-Foy and Angela Nobles Rothen, who vanished almost a year apart in the summers of 2006 and 2007. We are told that "scattered remains" were found in and near a shallow grave, behind an abandoned Mexican restaurant, and that local forensics experts have positively identified them as women. Now the remains have been sent to Texas for positive DNA identification.
I won't beat-up on why our State police lab can't properly process the remains: The State Bureau is still working on lab upgrades: ya, I think we've been fed that one for the last 10 years.
Ok, so maybe I will beat-up on the SBI. Friends of Debbie Key? Remember back in the 90s when a local lab processed underwear that was found in Dalzell's car and came back with indeterminate results? You might wanna have that evidence retested by an independent, outside source.
Now back to the skeletons in the Wilmington closet. Though my interest is peaked, I have a hard time rationalizing one of them is Key. For me to go there; one of them is Deborah, the other is probably Jackson-Foy or Rothen, and Mr. Dalzell is responsible for both their deaths. So, in 1997 Mr. Dalzell goes to Wilmington and buries Key behind the restaurant (I would want to know what that restaurant was in 1997, and what it was to Mr. Dalzell, if anything). Cut forward nine years... Dalzell has endured the arrest and the case gets thrown out, he is off the hook. Nevertheless, he returns to Wilmington, murders again and buries the second body in the exact same place he left Key nine years prior. Then in the Spring of 2008, he agrees to go on the record on television's NC Wanted and cool-as-a-cucumber talks about it all and the duress he has suffered.
Andrew Dalzell, you are quite a tweaker.
It's a plot lifted from Bones, but I don't find that probable.
Now maybe I'm operating under some personal bias here. The Key case messed me up bad. Some of you know about some of this, I wrote about it in a piece called Bad Dream House , but there's more I've never discussed (at least I think I've never discussed? What-the-hell, I'll discuss it again). The billiard hall, Sticks and Stones where Deborah was last seen? In early 2001 my ex-wife took over that space and ran a retail childrens' clothing store called Chicken Noodle Soup out of it. I would pull into the parking lot every day, right up to the spot where there were flowers placed where Deborah was last seen. I would work in that store on weekends. I used to carry a photo of Debbie in my car, I finally worked up the courage to throw it away (sorry Deb, but I think you'd get the reason).
So you can see why I might have finally had enough of the Deborah Key case.
It gets worse. It's been some time, but I'm not going to embellish the following, just the facts. So we're living in the house. Early one morning my ex-wife and I are awoken by a pounding on the front door about 5:00 am. Bam-bam-bam! I go to the front door and I can see out the window the red and blue flash of a police cruiser. Bam-bam-bam! I open the door. A County deputy is shining a Maglite in my eyes, "Everything alright in here?"
Yes, everything's alright, what's the problem?
We got a 911 call from your house.
911? No one called 911, we're all asleep.
Sir, we got a 911 call from inside this house.
Officer, my wife and I are asleep, my kids are four and one, they didn't make the call.
Alright, sorry to disturb you.
That's a true story. I don't know what that meant. I don't know what that meant to the police... some sort of process error? I don't know what that meant for Deborah Key. I do know what it meant for me and my family; we had to sell the house, and within six months we were gone.
Concerning the bones in the woods in Wilmington? Deborah's family and friends are smart people, over 11 years they have learned to play this game. So I will say this: it is very wise - it is imperative - to keep Deborah's case in the news. I would go to any length to keep the media informed of all possibilities, however unlikely. Let the public and law enforcement judge whether the theory has any merit. And if one of those sets of remains turns out to be Deborah? That's The Probable Impossible.
Posted by John Allore - 6/22/2008 09:02:00 AM
6 comments:
**Bill Widman said...
Thank you John.
No, I don't believe that one set of these bones belongs to Debbie. (I could be wrong.)
What I do believe is in keeping her story in the news.
I never heard, until now, about the (supposed) 911 call from your house.
I am sorry the case has upset you so much, but I will always appreciate how you have responded to it.
**Maritime Missy said...
John...we had a similar 9-1-1 experience. It was a Saturday afternoon when two RCMP cruisers arrived at our door saying they received three 9-1-1 hangups from inside our house. We told them everything was fine and nobody had made a call. Like proper police officers, they came inside anyway and spent 10-15 minutes investig
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