Click here to visit the mobile version of winnipegfreepress.com

Winnipeg Free Press > Local > Serial killer? Police to take another look

Local

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Serial killer? Police to take another look

By: Gordon Sinclair Jr.

25/07/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 8

Every other weekend, Justice Minister Dave Chomiak goes for a bike ride in the North End neighbourhood where he grew up.

"I've only been shot at once," he says with a smile. "It was a pellet gun."

Related Items

  1. Articles

Chomiak shrugs off concerns for his personal safety on the rides through what is now gang turf. Instead, what concerns him -- even haunts him -- is what he sees every time he goes back there.

"There's teenage hookers," Chomiak says. "All aboriginal, all drugged-out."

And every time he sees them, he wonders the same thing:

"Which one is going to end up dumped?"

"ö "ö "ö

It's Monday afternoon and Chomiak and I are alone in his office. I have a long list of questions for him, including one he hears consistently from others.

Is there a serial killer preying on prostitutes in Winnipeg? And that's where our conversation gradually goes. Chomiak quotes statistics compiled by an agency devoted to helping women from the street, Transition Education Resources for Females (TERF).

Over the last 26 years, 26 Winnipeg women, children and transgendered sex trade workers have been murdered.

More than half were aboriginal.

There are also 23 "long-term" missing women, according to TERF.

The latest victim is Cherisse Houle, a 17-year-old who friends said had a million-dollar smile.

She was found face-down. In a ditch.

Chomiak says after her body was found, he met with senior officers from both the Winnipeg police and RCMP, as he usually does in these cases.

And, as he usually does, he asked the same question I asked. Could a serial killer, or serial killers, be responsible for some of these killings?

"I have been convinced by police that the evidence does not point to that," Chomiak says.

But he doesn't sound all that convinced.

Police acknowledged five years ago that there were similarities involving 12 of the murders going back more than two decades.

Some had been found in geographic clusters. Some had died in similar ways. Yet police said they had no hard evidence there was a serial killer at work. However, they couldn't say there wasn't.

"I'm paranoid about this. I mean, I don't want to be. I mean, I've read all the Pickton stuff."

Robert Pickton, the notorious pig farmer who became one of the most prolific serial killers in Canadian criminal history, preyed on women from Vancouver's East Side red-light district.

Eventually he was caught by chance. But for years, those in charge of the Vancouver police and the RCMP ignored public and media suspicions, and even an internal opinion, that there was a serial killer at work.

The internal opinion came from a now-former Vancouver police officer named Kim Rossmo, who had developed a geographic-profiling technique to identify serial killers' patterns. Rossmo believed there was a serial killer, but the Vancouver police higher-ups did not. He is now an internationally renowned serial-killer profiler working out of Texas State University.

Two years ago, Free Press reporter Bruce Owen contacted Rossmo. The body of a 17-year-old girl from the street had been found dumped on the outskirts of Winnipeg. Police confirmed that it was the same area where two other women involved in the sex trade had been found -- within metres of each other -- five years apart.

"The odds of a different offender picking the same location is highly unlikely," Rossmo told Owen back then.

On Monday, as Chomiak discussed the possibility of a serial killer, I could tell the justice minister needed to have another chat with police.

"ö "ö "ö

It's Friday and Chomiak and I are talking on the phone. I tell him I've spoken with Rossmo.

Rossmo said there have been serial killers in Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, Victoria and even Saskatoon.

"It would be shocking to think," Rossmo concluded, "that in a city the size of Winnipeg, that you wouldn't have one or more serial killers preying on prostitutes over a 30-year period."

Chomiak has something to tell me, too.

"The RCMP and Winnipeg police are going to take another look at it," the justice minister says. "They're going to take another look at all of the significant unsolved murders."

He expects police will announce the details next week.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

 

A large human toll

MURDERED and missing Winnipeg women, children and transgendered people involved in the sex trade, since 1983:

Murdered: 26 (including 16 aboriginal victims)

Unsolved: 21

Convictions: 3

Charges before the court: 2

Long-term missing: 23 (including 16 aboriginal people)

 

-- Source: Transition Education Resources For Females (TERF)/New Directions

 

 

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 25, 2009 B1

  • Rate this Rate This Star Icon
  • This article has not yet been rated.

    • We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high. If you thought it was well written, do the same. If it doesn’t meet your standards, mark it accordingly.

    You can also register and/or login to the site and join the conversation by leaving a comment.

    Rate it yourself by rolling over the stars and clicking when you reach your desired rating. We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high.

8 Commentscomment icon

What Chomiak said about kids working the streets isn't pleasant but it's true, so why shoot the messenger? At least he's not like so many politicians who hide in their office pretending it doesn't exist. Police typically minimize the importance of these crimes adopting the same erroneous attitude that Karen unfortunately put out there, "..these girls know exactly what is going on out there.. they take their chances so be it." Oh really? And you don't think movies like Pretty Woman have misled them? Teenagers are notoriously naive marks for con men (pimps) who will purposefully seek out marginalized youth in poor areas/schools, put them up, feed them, brainwash them, sell them the glamourous side of "helping" pple, make them feel special, immerse them in a subculture that sets them apart from others (isolation) and tell them they will protect them while placing them in harms way. And like typical teenagers they believe they are invincible. Ironically the gov employs the exact same methods to induct our kids into the army. They do it because it works. Advocates who point at the lack of resources have definitely hit the nail on the head. When you have nothing else in your life, you're so much more of a mark.

My partner of 7 years has worked for numerous aboriginal CFS agencies in the city.
She has long contended, along with numerous others in her line of work, that there is a serial killer(s) here in the city.

It's been a long time coming for Chomiak, or any justice minister, to finally wake up and act on what is plainly obvious to others in this city of 700,000 plus people.
Why did it take the justice minister, riding his bike through the north end, to finally act on what is so obvious to others...did he have an epiphany while doing so?

Referring to the May 14th edition of the WFP, the headline was "Investigate missing women, Liberals urge". Anita Neville put her name behind this along with the The Sisters in Spirit Initiative of the Native Women's Association of Canada.

It is estimated that there are approximately 500 First Nations women missing in Canada, mostly from our western Provinces, over the past 20+ years.

It's hard to believe that ALL these women were killed by individuals, in isolated cases.

To quote Kim Rossmo: "It would be shocking to think, that in a city the size of Winnipeg, that you wouldn't have one or more serial killers preying on prostitutes over a 30-year period."

It's about time action is taken!

good article, however I do believe there is a serial killer in Winnipeg.

Yes how convenient bike 10 minutes out of your way to avoid being killed.

Anyone see the two (seperate) spots on Main closed off tonight, wiht in total definately 25 cop cars in total. Ya...we'll read about it in the morning.

I sure hope Mr. Chomiak isn't advising people frequent the North End on bikes. What an absurd thing to imply that it's safe to do so.

The other day I biked from downtown to my home in the Maples and completely by-passed North Main and the North End by crossing the river into St. Boniface and Henderson Hwy. I usually take my chances by using Main or Salter because it's faster, but after the recent violence in the area I decided against it. I must say I will be using the longer route from now on because I did not see one panhandler or gang member.

Well Mr. Chomiak I'd like to tell you that I can not ride my bike to work because when I am off at midnight I am too scared to ride past the North End. What do you suggest? I am too afraid to have my purse, IN my back pack incase I get robbed, beat up, stabbed, or shot. Here I am, trying to stay in fit and save some money (nevermind being environmentally friendly) by riding a bike. ((I like the idea of sending his children to ride through the hood)). HAH

And I agree with Karen that they know it's bad they know the consequences be it getting pregnant, AIDS or another STD. Getting beat up raped or killed. They also know it's good money. Unfortunately there are not enough sources out there, or thoes sources are not advertised enough or you have to have a black eye or 5 stinking naked children to actually get help.


Serial killer on not. These girls and women know exactly whats going on out there. They know more than most of us ever will. They take their chances so be it. Take all the looks at unsolved murders you want. It's not going to bring them back and there will always be another to take the place. Onto the second thing. I take my chance every single time I drive through the north end. The nerve Chomiak has about making light of being shot at with a pellet gun. Kids are shooting kids (which is gang related) and so that is ok? Once in a while an innocent is taken down. Maybe Chomiak should send his kids riding through the hood...

This was an informative article, I think Rossmo and Chomiak are on the right track. Very scary stuff, though.

The comment period for this story has ended.

letters

Make text: Larger | Smaller

Special coverage

Our Communities

Poll

Should the province spend $3.1 million to keep Greyhound inter-city bus service in Manitoba?

View Results

View Related Story