Red River Girl

by Joanna Jolly

  But miraculously, by late afternoon the girl was showing signs of recovery. When O’Donovan announced the good news in his office, a loud cheer erupted. It had been a tense few months. Although morale remained high within the unit, many officers had daughters of their own, and the strain of working on Tina’s case had taken its toll. Now, at last, they had something rare to celebrate: a victim clawed back from the brink of death. But as good as this news was, the mood soon sobered when the details of what had happened emerged.

  The previous evening, the girl had been out with friends on what was a typical Friday night for the teenager. It appeared that two strangers had enticed her to walk away from her group and follow them down a secluded path underneath the Midtown Bridge. Here, she had been violently sexually assaulted. It was not clear whether she had waded into the river to escape, or her attackers had thrown her in, but she had ended up flailing in the freezing water. She had managed to get herself back to the bank, scrabbling over jagged rocks a few metres upstream, only to be confronted by her attackers again, who viciously beat her for a second time. The men left her on the riverbank to die, soaking wet and half-naked. O’Donovan noted that the overnight temperature had been –5°C, but the wind chill was far colder.

  On Monday morning, with Tina’s case in mind, O’Donovan’s boss, Superintendent Danny Smyth, decided the Homicide Unit would make a public appeal for information and took the unusual step of releasing the girl’s name to the press. Even though she was a minor and entitled to anonymity, emphasizing the victim’s identity had provoked such a strong public response in Tina’s case that Smyth decided it was a practice worth repeating.

  His instincts were correct. Within hours, the unit’s phone line was inundated with calls. Crucially, information came in about a similar incident with a different woman that had happened on the same night. Putting the two together, detectives were able to identify a young Indigenous man and a teenager as responsible for both attacks.

  “I think their crimes and the viciousness of them speak for themselves,” Smyth told a crowded press conference after the arrests were announced.

  Although the speed at which they had solved the investigation and the teenager’s eventual recovery was a well-publicized victory for the Winnipeg Police Service, it also refocused attention back onto their lack of progress in Tina’s case. Tina was now firmly the national face of the disproportionately high number of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, which was now a regular headline issue. Two months earlier, an Indigenous woman, Holly Jarrett, had posted a selfie on social media holding up a sign on which she had written “#AmINext?” Her protest came after her cousin Loretta Saunders, who had been working on a thesis on violence against Indigenous women, was herself murdered. Jarrett asked other Indigenous women to post their own pictures, and the campaign took off, gaining international coverage. The women added their voices to the growing number of people demanding a national inquiry into the root causes of the violence. The result was that the Homicide Unit felt under mounting pressure to announce an arrest for Tina’s murder and was facing public criticism for dragging its feet.

  But O’Donovan refused to be distracted. His customary style was to work slowly and methodically, and he was determined to stick to his plan. His officers were well aware of the media scrutiny and were working far harder than he could remember. All they could do was keep moving forward and trust that results would eventually appear.

  * * *

  —

  A week later, at the end of November, Detective Sergeant Doug Bailey knocked on O’Donovan’s office door.

  “Cormier’s just called me to say he knows who killed Tina,” Bailey told his boss.

  O’Donovan paused for a second to digest the information. His immediate thought was to assume that Cormier was sending them on a wild goose chase or was fishing for information. But it was possible he might have something valuable to say.

  “Well, we’d better hear him out,” he replied.

  A couple of days later, on December 1, 2014, Cormier arrived at police headquarters for an interview. He was informed that he was still a suspect in the Tina Fontaine case and could call a lawyer anytime, but Cormier declined, saying he was impatient to talk. He told detectives that for the last few days he’d been sharing his cell with a biker who was deeply entrenched in Winnipeg’s crystal meth subculture.

  “This guy told me he knows who the real killer is,” Cormier said, revealing it was the leader of a biker gang.

  Cormier elaborated, saying his cellmate had been too scared to give him the guy’s real name, but he knew who he was and was sure DNA evidence would link him to the murder. He said he had found out that Tina was killed because she had ripped the gang leader off on a bad coke deal. He knew that she had ripped others off before, reminding the detectives that he already told them about how Tina owed a man $250. He said he was so sure about the strength of his information that he was prepared to wear a wire to record his cellmate’s conversation.

  Bailey and Oliver listened patiently, nodding their heads as Cormier gave details. They did not recognize the name of Cormier’s cellmate and had no prior knowledge of the gang leader he had accused. Nor had they found any evidence that corroborated Cormier’s claim that Tina had owed $250.

  From the lengths he was going to, Bailey told Cormier, it was clear that he must really care about Tina.

  “I was attracted to her,” Cormier admitted. “You know, the first time I met her, when I was cycling down the street, she flashed her titties at me.” He stole a look at the detectives to see how they would react. Though when he’d found out she was fifteen, he added, he was no longer interested in having sex with her.

  Watching from the monitoring room, O’Donovan noted this detail. It was unlikely that Tina had lifted her top to show her breasts, but it wasn’t impossible. Cody hadn’t mentioned it, but then again, he hadn’t been asked the question specifically. If true, it might help explain Cormier’s fixation on the teenager.

  Cormier now started to ask his own questions, trying to gauge how the investigation was going. He was most interested in the DNA, in particular whether his sample had matched anything gathered from Tina’s body. “Everyone but Tina was using needles in 22 Carmen and there was blood all over the place,” he said. “Tina could easily have got some of that on her, or maybe borrowed clothes from Sarah that had my blood on them.”

  When he could see that the detectives weren’t going to be drawn into speculating, Cormier became hostile. He brought up a well-known case of a wrongful conviction in which a man had been found guilty of a more serious crime because he hadn’t wanted to admit to a lesser one. The detectives understood that Cormier was hinting that, for him, the theft of the truck was the lesser crime. But he still stopped short of admitting he’d stolen it.

  * * *

  —

  Later that day, O’Donovan received news that Cormier’s DNA did not match anything found on Tina or on the duvet cover. Disappointed, he told detectives it was time to move to the next logical line of questioning. A number of witnesses had mentioned that they had seen Cormier using his own bedding, describing how he had packed and unpacked it as he moved about. Now O’Donovan wanted each of these witnesses to be shown a photo of the same cover pattern as the one Tina was found in to find out if any of them could connect it to Cormier.

  Detectives were still managing to keep details of the duvet cover out of the press. No one outside of the unit knew the cover was a Costco brand and the pattern was called Chloe Green, with brown, red, russet, and green leaves embroidered on an off-white background. Even during the months-long canvass that had started in August, when officers tried to track all four duvet cover patterns sold under the same Costco barcode, they did not explain why they were conducting the search. O’Donovan felt it was time to capitalize on this information.

  Exactly how he would go about asking the witnesses to identify the cover had been a complicated decision. Under Canadian case law,
when witnesses were asked to identify a suspect, the police were required to show a photo lineup of people of a similar race, age, and physical build to ensure that the identification was fair. But there were no such guidelines when it came to identifying a piece of property.

  O’Donovan carefully weighed up the benefits of showing either just one picture of a duvet cover pattern or a lineup of ten similar ones. If he showed only the one, he could be accused of not providing a choice and leading witnesses on. But if he showed an array of them, they might be so similar that witnesses ended up guessing between them. It was a difficult call, and O’Donovan realized that he also had to consider future cases that might be affected by his choice. In the end, he decided that the detectives would show only one photo of the Chloe Green pattern. It would get definite yes or no answers on which they could build their case. He thought it best not to select a catalogue photo, which might look too pristine, and instead chose one of the more amateur-looking photos sent in during the canvass that showed a Chloe Green cover draped over a chair. If you didn’t know it was a duvet cover, you could easily mistake it for a bedspread, a curtain, or a tablecloth.

  The first witnesses on the list were Ida and Chantelle Beardy. O’Donovan once again assigned Detective Sergeants Jeff Stalker and Myles Riddell to visit them at the house where Cormier had lived in a tent during the summer. The last time they’d been there, Ida Beardy had mentioned how Cormier would fold up his blankets and stack them into a neat pile or hang them out to air on the fence.

  When they arrived at 686 Alexander Avenue, the detectives found Ida and Chantelle sitting separately in the kitchen and living room, out of earshot of each other. Despite nearly twenty years’ experience, it was the first time Stalker had asked a witness to identify an object, and he and O’Donovan had spent considerable time discussing how to go about it. They knew they had to be careful not to lead the witnesses, so Stalker did not refer to his previous visits, fearing it might prompt the women to connect his presence with Raymond Cormier. Instead, he approached Ida saying he had something to show her and immediately handed her the single photo of the duvet cover. “What does this mean to you?” he asked, taking out his notebook to record exactly what she said.

  Ida’s eyes widened. “That’s Frenchie’s blanket,” she said loudly.

  Stalker was taken aback by the passion of her response. He hadn’t expected such a strong reaction.

  “That’s the blanket Frenchie brought over, and we had it here, in the back room,” Ida explained. “He also had a red blanket in the tent. This one is the sort of blanket you open up and put another blanket inside,” she added, pointing at the picture.

  For a moment Stalker was confused, until Ida patiently explained what a duvet cover was. He didn’t have any at home and had not been sure how they were used.

  “Frenchie got his blankets from Value Village,” Ida continued. “I didn’t see it after the summer. Frenchie must have taken it with him.”

  Stalker asked Ida to initial the back of the photo to confirm that she had definitely recognized it. The conversation over, she made it clear that she had given him enough time and had other things to do. Ida left the kitchen, to be replaced by Chantelle. Once again, Stalker took out a fresh copy of the duvet cover photo and started the process of identification.

  “What does this mean to you?” he asked.

  “That’s Sebastian’s blanket!” Chantelle said, with even more conviction than her mother. “He had it here at the house.”

  Chantelle told Stalker that Cormier’s duvet cover had been slightly darker than the one in the photo and had possibly been stained. But the pattern of leaves was exactly as she remembered. Like Ida, she hadn’t seen it in the house after Cormier left in the summer. Stalker noted down her response and again handed over the photo for her to sign. To be helpful, Chantelle also wrote down her cell number in case they had further questions.

  “This is it!” O’Donovan shouted when Stalker later relayed what had happened.

  Finally, after months of searching, his detectives had found a concrete link between Cormier and Tina’s body. O’Donovan was confident of the interviews, even though he knew they were circumstantial and not conclusive. Ida Beardy was a complicated character, and her alcohol and drug habit meant she would likely be seen as an unreliable witness in court. But she was also a straight talker, and the conviction behind her recognition had made a powerful impression on Stalker. Moreover, Chantelle had corroborated her statement. This was the most progress the team had made since they had begun investigating Cormier, and now more than ever O’Donovan was convinced they had the right man. But the detective knew they would need stronger evidence linking Cormier with Tina’s death if they were to have any chance of seeing him convicted.

  A day later, Stalker and Riddell showed the Chloe Green duvet cover picture to Ernest DeWolfe. Cormier’s former friend had been eager to help.

  “I remember a blanket with a fall scene, brown leaves,” he told them when they asked him to describe Cormier’s bedding.

  Riddell placed a picture of the Chloe Green cover in front of him. “Do you recognize this?” he asked.

  “That looks like Ray’s blanket,” said DeWolfe. “I can’t say one hundred percent that’s the one, but it looks like it.”

  Once again, O’Donovan let himself feel a mild beat of excitement. Now he had two separate sets of witnesses confirming that the duvet cover had belonged to Cormier. But he realized that DeWolfe, like Ida Beardy, would not be considered a star witness. A self-confessed drug addict and a convicted thief, DeWolfe would likely be pulled apart on the stand, his character and motivation questioned at every turn. And it didn’t help that a few days later, Sarah Holland was shown the picture of the duvet cover but failed to recognize it.

  * * *

  —

  O’Donovan was still pinning his hopes on forensic evidence to provide the smoking gun he needed. But as the results from the tests on 22 Carmen and the stolen truck trickled in, there was nothing to lift his spirits. The team had found areas of blood splatter on the walls and ceilings of 22 Carmen which they were able to match to the known drug users in the house. But they could find no connection between Cormier and Tina’s body or the duvet cover. They had got no further with the truck. Although it appeared to have been wiped down both inside and out, analysts had found hairs and fibres which they sent to be tested. But again, the results revealed there was nothing that pointed to either Cormier or Tina having been inside the vehicle.

  Christmas was now approaching, and the prairies were shrouded in a deep blanket of snow. Soon the ice on the Red and Assiniboine Rivers would be thick enough to carve out a skating trail. Along with his team, in between time off to enjoy the holidays, O’Donovan was still spending hours working on Tina’s case. With no new leads to pursue on Cormier, the detectives had turned their attention back to the other suspects. O’Donovan still believed that Cormier should be prosecuted, but he wanted to make sure that every lead was properly pursued.

  For a while, Tyrell Morrison was placed under investigation. In the summer of 2014, Morrison had been arrested for assaulting Sarah Holland, though the charges were later stayed. A witness had come forward to say that Holland had told her Morrison stabbed Tina in the vagina before killing her. The detectives tried to verify this account, rechecking the pathologist’s report for anything that indicated such an injury. But they could find nothing to support the story. Holland was given a polygraph test and denied making the allegation. She did remember something else of significance, however: a small detail from the argument Cormier had with Tina outside 22 Carmen on August 6. She recalled him shouting at the teenager, “You’re going to end up in the river.”

  Another tip came in about the low-budget Windsor Hotel, in the downtown district. Long-time residents described how, a few days before Tina was found, they saw a girl matching her description in a hotel room across the hallway. She had arrived with a bicycle and a backpack, and two weeks later th
ey saw the people in the room trying to push the bike and backpack out through a window. O’Donovan’s team tried to verify the story but found that the witnesses were too high on alcohol and crystal meth to be coherent. Even if the story were true, the timeline did not match. O’Donovan told his team to disregard the information and move on.

  Detectives were still receiving information from the public connecting Tina with the Kenyan and Nigerian from the Furby Street rooming house. O’Donovan told his team that it was time to either eliminate the men from the investigation or bring them in for questioning. The first step would be to see if they could be connected to the Chloe Green duvet cover. O’Donovan asked for it to be shown to the witness from the rooming house who had reported seeing Tina lying under a pale-coloured blanket with flowers on it. She was happy to help but was unable to recognize the pattern.

  Still, O’Donovan felt he had enough circumstantial evidence to arrest the men on suspicion of murder. But once they had been interviewed, his opinion changed. He could see that both men were genuinely shocked to be charged. Whereas Cormier had been aggressive and defensive, trying to deflect blame by mentioning other potential suspects and refusing to cooperate, the men held nothing back about their drug-and-sex-fuelled lives. Though they had the right to remain silent, they tried to be as helpful as they could, even volunteering their DNA. The results from the forensic tests backed up their story: they were not a match for anything the police had collected. The men also lacked access to a vehicle in which to have transported Tina’s body. Finally, the gang leader who employed the men to run the Furby Street crack house came forward to corroborate their version of events. O’Donovan concluded there was no truth to the rumours that they had killed Tina. This left Cormier as the sole suspect in his investigation.