RCMP to review unsolved killings

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This article was published 02/08/2009 (6175 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba RCMP are cracking open decades of unsolved homicides where women were the victims, a spokeswoman said Saturday.

The investigation comes after public concern by victims’ families as well as community groups who wonder whether or not those homicides are linked and if a serial killer could be at work.

"We’re going to review every historical homicide that involved women as a victim," RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Line Karpish said.

That means starting at square one all over again, Karpish said.

"We’re going to go through every single piece of paper, every bit of evidence and every single photograph to make sure all our Ts are crossed and all our Is are dotted. If any gap is identified, we will take action."

Karpish said police decided to review the files, some of them dating back to the 1960s, after meetings with members of the community and Justice Minister Dave Chomiak.

"(It) is largely driven by our desire to ensure to the public that they are safe, and that we are doing our job when missing people are reported (or) when foul play is suspected," Karpish said.

Karpish stressed a separate task force isn’t being created and RCMP will use existing resources, including four officers and one criminal analyst from its historical case unit to scour through decades of files. Homicides are classified as historical after five years, Karpish said.

The investigation is expected to take several months.

"It’s a very daunting task," Karpish added. "Every (case) is unique — some have more to work with, some have less," Karpish said.

"We don’t catalogue homicides by sex or by race. So we need to figure out which of those files are subject to review. It’s a process we must go through."

The team will use the RCMP’s violent crime linkage analysis system (VCLAS), Karpish said. VCLAS will allow investigators to mine for possible connections between the unsolved homicides, not just in Manitoba, but across the country.

"We’re going to make sure that everything that should be on there is on there," Karpish said.

The public would be notified if this latest review yields any new or important information on unsolved homicides involving women, Karpish said.

"If there are any links to any of these homicides where we feel public safety is at issue we will notify the public immediately," Karpish said.

In Manitoba, advocacy groups have said there may be at least 75 unsolved cases of missing and murdered woman.

The Winnipeg Police Service’s website lists 28 unsolved murders of women, including Noreen Taylor, 32, who was found lying on Ham Street near Lagimodiere Boulevard in August 2001. Taylor, a known prostitute, was partially nude and suffered massive head injuries consistent with being pushed from, jumping out of, or falling from a speeding vehicle, police said.

Taylor’s mother, Sylvia Aerssens, said the new investigation is the right move by police investigators.

"The good Lord works in many ways," Aerssens said. "Maybe it’s His way of saying something should be done. It would be nice to have something solved."

Justice Minister Dave Chomiak first told the Free Press last month that the RCMP and Winnipeg Police were dusting off the old cases. The news came shortly after 17-year-old Cherisse Houle was found dead, face down in a ditch, and Chomiak himself wondered if a serial killer could be responsible.

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

Former Vancouver police officer turned serial-killer profiler Kim Rossmo told the Free Press that it wouldn’t surprise him if a serial killer was at work in Winnipeg.

"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," Rossmo said.

— With files from the Canadian Press

matt.preprost@freepress.mb.ca