Blow That House Down

“Serial murderers are caught, not because of an intensive police investigation but because, one day they make a mistake. We can only hope that this day comes soon." - L.D. October 1992

When is a house not just a ‘house’? I suppose it’s when it is described as a pretty, little, pink, Cape Cod cottage at 57 Bayview Drive in Old Towne Port Dalhousie, Ontario. It no longer exists. The lot has been renumbered to 61 where another house now resides but that doesn’t stop people, now  22 years later, from still driving -- slowly by " looking….

 

June 15, 1991

 In the early hours of June 15th 1991, Leslie Mahaffey, 14 was abducted after making a phone call at a convenience store near her home in Burlington.

 

There was little publicity since the initial reaction to her disappearance was that she had run away. Family, friends and police expected her to eventually turn up safe and sound.

 

Turn up she did, but not safe and definitely not sound.

 

On June 30th, two weeks after her disappearance, fishermen discovered her dismembered body, encased in blocks of cement in Lake Gibson in Thorold, a three minute drive from my home….

 

Twenty-four weeks later . . . .

 December 1, 1991

 

On the evening of November 30, 1991, Terri Anderson, 14 went to a party intending to stay the night at a friend's home. Her father was surprised when she returned home shortly before 1:00 am.

 

Sometime later that night Terri went back out into the cold night leaving the front door of their townhouse ajar . . . . never to be seen alive again.    

 

A massive search was undertaken, but nothing was found. Media reports stated that her estranged mother felt that she might have run away to Toronto.

 

Twenty-weeks later and uncomfortably close to Terri Anderson's home . . . . 

 

April 16, 1992

 On April 16, 1992, the day before Good Friday, Kristen French, a fifteen year old student at Holy Cross Secondary School in north St. Catharines was abducted from a church parking lot in broad daylight while walking home.

 

Two weeks later, on April 30th, Kristen's nude body was found on a back road in Burlington, only a few kilometers from the spot where Leslie Mahaffey had been abducted.

 

The forensic evidence determined that Kristen had been kept captive for at least ten days before she was asphyxiated. She had been sexually assaulted and her long brown hair had cropped close to her skull.

 

The public was shocked, outraged and terrified.

  

Three weeks later . . .

 May 22, 1992 …

 

Terri Anderson's partially clothed body was spotted floating in Lake Ontario near Port Dalhousie by fishermen.

 

Although the autopsy could not determine the cause of her death -- it did rule out drowning. Further blood tests revealed she had ingested some LSD before she expired…

 

Police ruled out any 'foul play' in her death and assured the public that there was no connection between Terri's death and the murders of Leslie and Kristen.

 

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The abduction of Kristen French sent shock waves throughout the Niagara community. No one remained untouched by the tragedy.

 

As the days passed the confidence that she'd be found alive was slowly giving way to a almost paralyzing fear. Adding to this growing fear was the fact that only five months earlier, Terri Anderson, (who was still listed as missing when Kristen's body was discovered), had disappeared very close to where Kristen was abducted.

 

When Kristen's body was found, public fear turned to outrage. How could someone disappear, be held captive and murdered without someone having seen something. Why couldn't the police find the 'cream-coloured Camaro' reported by witnesses?

 

Unfortunately the police's method of handling this sensitive issue,  may have done them and their credibility more harm than good. Officially released statements at first denied any link between the murders of Leslie and Kristen and the disappearance (and subsequently discovered death) of Terri Anderson. Could it be that they originally thought that the public would rest easier thinking that instead of one psychopath - a serial killer - roaming the streets of Niagara, that there were maybe two or more? When they later admitted that they were indeed investigating the possibility of some connection between the Leslie Mahaffey and Kristen French murders, people questioned why they hadn't just admitted that in the first place.

 

However it wasn't until the Kristen French story was aired on major television channels across Ontario that public seriously began to question the abilities of those conducting the investigations. The program which focused on the FBI profile of Kristen's abductor(s) brought many new facts to light. First of all the public was told that there was more than one person involved. The police had known this for sometime but had chosen to say nothing. Secondly, although witnesses had provided the details for composite sketches of the two suspects in the case, the police had deliberately withheld them for many weeks. The reasons given for this lack of communication were less than satisfactory leaving the local media and many others in the community questioning the accuracy and integrity of the police-released information.

 

People were confused and frightened not knowing who to trust anymore. The Police spokesmen continued to be optimistic giving the impression that these cases would be solved quickly and the murderers identified and prosecuted.

 

However, in the Police department's attempts to keep a disturbed public calm, a preoccupied media at bay, and in deference to their own wishes to capture this psychotic before more deaths occur, they unwittingly caused themselves more problems. This, of course is not an uncommon situation in these cases.

 

As the days began to drag into weeks and the weeks into months it was apparent that either these cases were not going to be solved so simply or the Niagara Regional Police Force just wasn't up to the job. Public confidence soon changed to public rancour. Debates were held in the community where open discussions occurred not about the murders but about the investigations. It seemed that the frustration mixed with fear was clearly directed at the police force and its credibility.

 

It has now been over six months since Kristen French's murder. The Green Ribbon Task Force  has its own headquarters and has expanded in size and jurisdiction having seconded officers from other regions to help co-ordinate the investigation. Thousands of cream-coloured Camaro’s  have been checked and hundreds of tips have been explored.

 

To date no suspect has been apprehended and the stories in the press are dwindling.

 

October 1992

Author's Note

Lake Gibson is three minutes from my driveway. Terri Anderson's Uncle is a personal friend.

Reviews

[Samuel Dickens]

Gripping. Disturbing. As shown here, real monsters walk among us. Hopefully, the culprit will get what he deserves, either in this life or the next.

[Chance]

Interesting read. Scary and sad. Holy Thursday is a Holy Day of Obligation in the Cathloic Church. An abduction on that day from a catholic school seems even more troubling for some reason.

[Gray Witch]

I totally agree and even after more than 2 decades this community has never been the same................Thanks for reading!

[Hamza]

i respect the sentiments of the people who have lost their dear ones... at first i thought it was a fictional novel but the end disappoints me ... such tragedies are a setback and such people have no right to live who mercilessly kill others ...
there have been similar situations in kashmir too and i dear say .. hundreds of people have gone missing or abducted and no reports about their whereabouts have been filed so far ... these date back from the early nineties and till date they still are still reported missing ... one cruel reality ...
thank you for sharing this piece ..

[Fictioneer]

Non-Fiction? Very well researched. I can see this becoming a great novel; all the elements are hear in this outline off events. I would to read this if you plan to create the novel. "Some times the Truth is strange than Fiction"

[Gray Witch]

Many True Crime books have been written about the Paul Bernardo/Karla Holmoka case.... but it could be a fictional novel using some of the case details I suppose....

[Claire Twinn]

It makes me so angry that this level of incompetance (or cover up) can be allowed to cause such pain, so sad for the grieving families.

[Gray Witch]

It happened over twenty years ago and yes it was horrendous at the time. Unfortunately it was before the computer era where data and information could be shared less easily. Today's investigations are still problematic with agencies wanting the glory and so not sharing as they should be then it was just the way it was! I wrote the piece at the time out of frustration and on looking at it now it is surprising how much of what I said back then was true... (it is a part of a much bigger paper I did for a university class on deviance and criminality.