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Mon 8 Feb, 2010 04:48 pm
Top Canadian Military Official Charged With Murder
Associated Press
Posted February 8, 2010 at 3:28 p.m. , updated February 8, 2010 at 3:28 p.m.
TORONTO --- The commander of Canada's biggest Air Force base, who once flew dignitaries around the country, has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of two women.
Ontario Provincial Police Det. Insp. Chris Nicholas said Monday that Col. Russell Williams, 46, was arrested Sunday in Ottawa. He was also charged in the sexual assaults of two other women.
Williams was appointed as the base commander of Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Trenton, Ontario last July. Trenton is Canada's busiest Air Force base and is providing logistical support for Canada's missions in Haiti and Afghanistan.
Williams is charged with the first-degree murder of Jessica Lloyd, 27, of a Belleville, Ontario, resident whose body was found earlier Monday, and Marie Comeau, a 38-year-old corporal found dead in her Brighton, Ontario, home in November.
Authorities said Williams came to the attention of police during a roadside canvas on Feb. 4, six days after Lloyd was deemed missing.
Williams is also charged with forcible confinement, breaking and entering and sexual assault after two women were sexually assaulted during two separate home invasions in the Tweed, Ontario area in September of 2009.
Dan Dugas, a spokesman for Defense Minister Peter MacKay, called the charges serious but said MacKay will not comment.
Lieutenant-General Andre Deschamps, Canada's Air Force chief, said in a statement that it will review what action to take against Williams and said that an interim Trenton commander will be named.
Deschamps said the Air Force is fully supporting civilian police. He called it a difficult period but said they would support the personnel at Trenton.
Between December 2005 and June 2006, Williams was the commanding officer for Camp Mirage, the secretive Canadian Forces forward logistics base that is not officially acknowledged by the government or military but has been widely reported to be near Dubai.
Police are going to take a long look at cold cases in areas where Williams has been stationed in the past.
@djjd62,
In Australia we had a decades old case where a baby was taken to a public toilet, violently raped to the point where the baby died and the body was then thrown onto the toilet roof. It turned out to be an air force serviceman who was helped in concealing his identity by being posted elswhere. It was just under 20 yrs from memory before he was tried and found guilty.
We had a soldier who was stealing drugs from the pharmacy where he worked and was sedating boy scouts where he helped as a volunteer. One day he tried to molest a larger boy who came to. We took around the hat so he could get bail but the judge found out what we doing and refused bail for his safety.
There are many such stories. The military is nothing more than an organisation. The people come from all walks of life.
@djjd62,
This case is seriously creeping me out.
I'd been following the search for Jessica Lloyd as I always knew LLoyds growing up - I've spent some great time in Tweed during the summers over the past decade or so - and Brighton is where I'd been thinking of retiring. That whole Tweed-Trenton-Brighton area is my home stomping ground.
Kingston's a military town, as you know. Trenton's where the bodies of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan are repatriated.
It's home, and it's all too close for comfort in a lot of ways.
@ehBeth,
yeah, i figured the girl was dead, but i thought random, thing, met the wrong guy, whatever, never something like this
the fact that he's been places around the world really adds to the potential for a weird tale to emerge
@djjd62,
How were the two young women killed? Shot? Strangled? The article doesn't really say.
@Irishk,
haven't heard anything yet
@Irishk,
they aren't talking too much about the details right now - it seems to have something to do with the other charges against him - there's a sense in the blogs that these two murders are going to be the tip of an iceberg - is he a sexual predator? is he a serial murderer? something more?
@djjd62,
& ehBeth........ah, I see. I was curious since that detail seemed odd to omit.
@djjd62,
I cant help but wonder how he got to his position if he is menatlly damaged and if anyone near him suspected but did nothing.
@ehBeth,
even the stories about the older murder don't say much about how the victim was killed, the one story i read said they weren't sure if foul play was involved, so it obviously wasn't a messy murder (ie shot/stabbed)
@djjd62,
a very strange and disturbing story , indeed .
creepy in the extreme .
( you may NOT want to read this )
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/02/08/belleville-jessica-lloyd-dead-missing.html
This story is disturbing on so many levels.
he's kind of a creepy looking dude
@ehBeth,
ehBeth wrote:
they aren't talking too much about the details right now - it seems to have something to do with the other charges against him - there's a sense in the blogs that these two murders are going to be the tip of an iceberg - is he a sexual predator? is he a serial murderer? something more?
What would be something more?
@dlowan,
Well, I know I'm hoping we don't learn that there were red flags in the past re: sexual harassment or similar and that the military ignored -- just kept shipping him out to another base maybe 'cause he was such a "good officer".
@Tai Chi,
yup
don't need a travelling sexual predator in line to be one of Canada's top generals
chilling
@djjd62,
hello it makes you wonder what other murders he might have been envolved with, i have a close friend and family relative who's daughter was murdered in the trenton area base back in june of 1997 and her murder is still unsolved .
@SANDERS41,
There was mention on the CBC this morning that police forces are taking another look at unsolved cases in a number of communities where he has been stationed.
@ehBeth,
bits and pieces of additional information are being reported .
i have to admit that i didn't sleep well last night - this is hitting too close to home .
just extremely disturbing - probably because it's so close to home .
i have visited the base , driven by it frequently - it's part of the larger eastern ontario community .
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/02/09/belleville-williams-murder-charges.html
@hamburgboy,
given the reports from the highway of heroes, it's a base that resonates with a good chunk of the national conscience
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