There are no happy endings in homicide sting operation

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/11/2006 (7202 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Inside a Spectacular RCMP Sting

By Mike McIntyre

Great Plains Publications, 405 pages, $12

Reviewed by Steve Saunders

IF you are looking for a happy ending, you won’t find it in this fascinating true-crime book.

There are no happy endings in homicides, particularly a homicide that involves a young woman who not only didn’t deserve to die but didn’t deserve to die the way she did.

Author Mike McIntyre is a veteran police and court reporter with the Winnipeg Free Press. He has previously written two other true-crime books.

This new one is extremely graphic. If you are the least bit squeamish, you may have difficulty getting get through some of the passages.

The book lays out in detail some of the conversations between a police undercover operator and the suspect in the homicide.

The dialogue is crude and offensive, littered with profanity and laced with disgusting references to sexual preferences.

That aside, the book is factual and detailed. It describes the murder that took place in Brandon of then 18-year-old Erin Chorney in April 2002.

The suspect, Michael Bradley Bridges, was Erin’s on again/off again boyfriend who was three years her senior. The relationship was tumultuous and at times violent, and it left Bridges as a logical suspect in her reported disappearance.

Bridges was tried in 2005. But for the few who might be unfamiliar with the case, McIntyre withholds the verdict until the book’s final pages.

McIntyre describes the Chorney and Bridges families, as well as what brought Erin and Michael together.

He does not temper his description of Chorney’s personality. At times, it is difficult to empathize with a young woman who is rebellious and experimenting with drugs, alcohol and sex.

But he soon abandons his negative depiction of Chorney as he depicts the police moving closer to solving her death.

Bridges, on the other hand, is painted as a vile individual. He is vulgar and crude with minimal education and little motivation to contribute to his community. It is easy to dislike this man, and that lack of sympathy for him continues throughout the book.

McIntyre applauds the police efforts throughout. The work done by the Brandon Police Service in the initial stages of the investigation was methodical and detailed.

McIntyre provides an insight into the roadblocks encountered by police during a high-profile missing-person investigation. Red herrings, misinformation and loose ends bogged down the investigators in their attempt to gather evidence implicating their prime suspect yet, at the same time, not focus solely on him.

So-called psychics and wingnuts alike came out of the woodwork to muddy the waters.

Eventually the investigation stalls and the Brandon police looked for help from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

McIntyre highlights the RCMP involvement with details of the subsequent undercover operation that were revealed in court but not in such detail in media accounts of the trial.

It is this spotlight on the undercover operation that had and still has RCMP officials concerned about the public release of undercover techniques and scenarios.

Bridges was introduced to literally a cast of undercover officers, but the majority of the book details his interaction with the lead operator, a member of the RCMP who for the sake of the book and by court order is referred to only as “Brock.”

If there is a flaw in this book, it is in the editing. Anyone with a penchant for grammar and spelling will pick off the errors and will likely find them annoying.

The investigation into Erin Chorney’s death is a fascinating one, and it has been retold well by McIntyre. As true-crime books go, it is worth a read.

Steve Saunders is a staff sergeant with the RCMP in Manitoba.