 Anyone around the Ottawa area knows about the tragic death of Sarah McCarthy who was struck by a West-Way taxi cab (photo top left) at the Kanata Centrum and dragged for more than a kilometre down the Queensway this past November. To the shock of everyone, police decided there wasn't enough evidence to charge the cab's driver, Youssef Jaber. So now McCarthy's family is urging people to sign a petition to have an inquest called into McCarthy's death. The family hopes 5,000 people will sign the petition. Please help this family by sending an email and showing your support. Help justice be served for Sarah. To show your support email justiceforsarah@hotmail.com. Here's a recent article about this case: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=8fa2a3d1-b628-4f88-b0d3-022a75708710&k=82800
 This is a very sad case and the murder of Lisa Posluns is one that never should have happened. How much do you want to bet this accused killer - Nelson DeJesus - pictured on your left - is a repeat offender! How much do you want to bet he is a sex offender too. He's trying to say he didn't do it, yet according to all the press reports, he left DNA all over the place. My heart goes out to the Poslun family who have had to wait so long for this trial. The murder was back in Nov 2002. Let's hope justice is served and DeJesus is found guilty and charged with the maximum sentence possible.
This story is a direct result of the passing of Bill C-13 last spring. The ability to get DNA retroactively means some cold cases might get solved. Plus should any of these known offenders get released, at least their DNA will now be in the databank. Let me translate that. At least now, if they are released and they do re-offend, the police would be able to nab them quickly.
Here's the article:
TORONTO -- Police are gathering DNA samples from 130 of the Toronto area's worst criminals -- including sex killers Paul Bernardo, Karla Homolka and Carl Francis Roy -- in a bid to solve cold cases.
About 20 blood samples have been collected by members of a Retroactive DNA Team, who'll compare them against those in the national DNA database.
"Karla was one of the first ones done," said Toronto Police Det.-Sgt. John Muise, who heads the team. "Paul Bernardo was done previously. They're both in the system."
The retroactive team is targeting criminals convicted previously, in contrast to the thousands of samples taken every year once an offender is convicted.
Police can only petition the court to collect samples from those convicted of manslaughter, first- and second-degree murders and serious sex offences.
"We would like to see 100% collection," Muise said. "Our database should be expanded to include less serious crimes.
"We are at the front end of this technology," he said. "This trumps jailhouse confessions or informants."
Muise said the technology can help solve gun crimes or nab those involved in gang killings.
"This will help in some shooting scenes, but not all," he said.
Roy's sample was among those recently collected by police.
MURDERED GIRL
Roy, 45, was convicted in April 1999 of the 1986 first-degree murder of Alison Parrott, 11, and was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for at least 25 years.
Alison was lured from her home, abducted, sexually assaulted, murdered and her body left in a Toronto park. The case went unsolved until 1996, when DNA left at the crime scene led to Roy.
The national DNA database contains more than 95,000 profiles and has been responsible for leads in 191 murders, 382 armed robberies and 478 sex assaults.
Almost 2,000 samples were collected by Toronto court officers last year using court orders.
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/National/2006/01/15/1394540-sun.html
Here's what the Citizen has to say about Power waiving parole...
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Killer waives parole hearing
Sister of slain woman credits her campaign for man's decision
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The sister of a young woman battered to death by a stalker in 1981 is relieved the killer has waived his right to a parole hearing in June.
Carolyn Gardner said yesterday she believes her year-long campaign to keep Ralph Ernest Power off the street was at least partly responsible for his decision not to seek full parole at this time. His next chance for a parole hearing will be May 2008. Mr. Power, now 52, was convicted in 1981 of murdering then-20-year-old Sheryl Gardner.
Carolyn Gardner, a 39-year-old marketer from Kanata, said the campaign to keep Mr. Power in prison even after he had served 25 years of his life sentence was designed to protect the public. More than 1,500 people across Canada signed a petition urging the National Parole Board not to free Mr. Power.
Ms. Gardner included the petition and information about her sister's murder on her website, www.powernoparole.ca .
"It is a matter of public safety that he should not be released," the petition read. "He should not be free to harm others. Please remember Ralph Power had a list of 15 other victims."
Sheryl Gardner was an aspiring model working in Toronto when she attracted the attention of Mr. Power, then a 28-year-old cleaner at a nearby Burger King restaurant.
Mr. Power, impersonating a telephone repairman, arrived at Ms. Gardner's apartment one evening to fix her telephone. He had phoned the previous day to schedule the appointment and arrived with a Bell Canada uniform and work order.
Once inside the apartment, he hit the young woman with a hammer. Then, when she began convulsing, he hit her 15 more times, to make sure she couldn't identify him.
He testified he wanted only to stun Ms. Gardner and "do research on her and see what she had." But he panicked when she fell on the floor in convulsions. He delivered a second set of hammer blows so she could not identify him or end up as "a vegetable," he said. Mr. Power claimed he was being controlled by voices.
"It was such a waste of a beautiful lady," he told the jury. "I only wanted to borrow her for a while, not kill her."
A few days later, Mr. Power attacked another woman, who escaped. When he was arrested in his apartment, police found files on 15 other women he had been stalking.
At the time of the killing, Mr. Power was on parole after having served eight years of a 10-year sentence for arson. He had poured gasoline through the mail slot of a woman's house and started a fire in an attempt to kill her.
Mr. Power is eligible for day parole, but has never applied. In December 2004, Ms. Gardner began a campaign to prevent his release because she believed he could still be a threat to the public.
"I feel a huge sense of relief and a sense of victory because of the awareness that has been created about this case," Ms. Gardner said.
"Too many hearings like this happen where people get parole and nobody says it is wrong. That is why so many dangerous offenders are released into the community."
Ms. Gardner, who was 15 when her sister was murdered, said she thinks about her every day. "We can't change what happened, but I do believe we can influence the future and help prevent Ralph Power from hurting other families."
Ms. Gardner, who used her marketing skills in the campaign, said the parole of dangerous people is a "huge issue" because many people like Mr. Power are released every year.
Ms. Gardner went to Parliament Hill in March to urge all parties to vote for an expanded Canadian DNA databank so more offenders could be identified if they commit more crimes.
Mr. Power was not in Canada's DNA databank because he killed only one woman, even though he attacked another and stalked 15 more.
Parliament passed a law in May that closed a loophole allowing many serious offenders to be released from prison without providing a DNA sample.
Bill C-13 allows DNA to be collected retroactively from anyone convicted of murder before June 30, 2000, and who is still serving a sentence for murder, manslaughter or a sexual offence.
The bill allowed the collection of DNA from notorious killer Karla Homolka and 4,400 other serious offenders, including Mr. Power.
This article was printed in today's Ottawa Sun...
RELIEF FOR VICTIM'S KIN
SISTER CELEBRATES SMALL VICTORY AS KILLER WAIVES PAROLE HEARING
Carolyn Gardner considers it a small victory that her sister's killer is abandoning a parole hearing.
Sheryl Gardner was a 20-year-old model living in Toronto in 1981 when Ralph Power entered her apartment and bludgeoned her to death.
Power, 52, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. He would have been eligible to seek full parole in June, but recently waived his parole hearing until May 2008.
Carolyn Gardner, who lives in Kanata, said the delay is a "relief."
"I feel like speaking up has got results," Gardner, 39, said yesterday.
HAVEN'T WON 'WAR'
At the same time, Gardner knows the victory comes with the reality that Power, who has not applied for day parole, could be outside prison walls in a few short years.
"It's inevitable that some day he will have a parole hearing. We've won the battle but not the war."
When he murdered Gardner, Power was under parole supervision for almost killing a woman after pouring gas through a letter slot and then setting it on fire.
Power, who stalked many young women, posed as a phone repairman to get inside Sheryl Gardner's apartment. He bludgeoned her with a hammer.
Evidence showed Power got thrills from ogling sunbathers through a telescope mounted on a tripod in his penthouse unit.
Carolyn Gardner has taken the family's lead in speaking out against Power's possible parole. She maintains a website, www.powernoparole.ca, where she collects support.
"The reason why we're talking about it is because (Sheryl) is definitely not forgotten," Gardner said.
Gardner successfully advocated for change in the past -- she fought for a DNA database for killers.
Sheryl's grave is in Gananoque, where she grew up; Power is jailed at the Bath Institution.
CLOSE TO RESTING PLACE
Gardner noted how unfortunate it is that Power is housed in a facility close to Sheryl's resting place. She intends to do everything possible to keep Power behind bars.
"I'm on it," she said. "I'll be watching."
jon.willing@ott.sunpub.com
Globe & Mail Article
I just realized that I forgot to post this article - it was written by a journalist named Kirk Makin. Ironically Kirk was at the trial for Ralph Power back in 1982 so he knows the case well. Anyhow, it was printed in the Globe and Mail last summer, on July 2 to be exact. It's a really well done article and worth the read if you have time. It gets into a lot of details around the crime etc.
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HOW A KILLER TURNED A VICTIM INTO AN ACTIVIST
Homolka became the touchstone for DNA data bank, but the pain was long there
By KIRK MAKIN
Globe and Mail
Saturday, July 2, 2005 Page A1
When Carolyn Gardner successfully lobbied MPs last winter for a law forcing convicted killers to provide a DNA sample, she latched on to the impending release of Karla Homolka as a rallying cry.
It worked. Invoking the name of the infamous killer magically cleared a parliamentary logjam. The new bill allowed police to add DNA samples from Ms. Homolka and hundreds of other killers to a national data bank
But Ms. Homolka was little more than a trump card for Ms. Gardner. Her real quarry was Ralph Ernest Power -- the psychopath who raped and killed her 20-year-old sister, Sheryl, 24 years ago today.
"Karla helped bring a sense of urgency to Bill C-13, but my involvement was very personal," Ms. Gardner said. "It was founded on Ralph Power."
Mr. Power, who meticulously stalked 15 women in downtown Toronto before murdering Sheryl and seriously harming another woman, becomes eligible for parole on July 2, 2006.
Late last year, the spectre of his release lit a fire under the 39-year-old founder and president of an Ottawa e-marketing business. Having shut her sister's murder out of her mind for 23 years, Ms. Gardner embarked on a high-energy crusade to see that Mr. Power never gets out.
She believes that, unlike Ms. Homolka, whose notoriety will make it nearly impossible for her to operate unobserved, Mr. Power can melt into the background and return to the murderous trail he left off in 1981.
"To be really dangerous, Karla needs a sidekick," Ms. Gardner said. "But Power is his own man."
The Power case took place when crime reporting was not the media staple it is today, but the story had all the ingredients of a blockbuster. Mr. Power was every woman's nightmare, a chameleon who had acquired a full range of criminal skills during his frequent prison stints for break-ins and arson.
When not mopping floors at one of the major burger joints, he whiled away his time scoping out potential victims on the streets and in the shopping malls of the city.
From the balcony of his 22nd floor apartment in downtown Toronto, Mr. Power spent many more hours spying on possible victims as they strolled about or sought refuge from the blistering heat in nearby swimming pools.
"He really got fulfilment from the hunt," said Wayne Oldham, a homicide detective whose partner, David Boothby, would later become the chief of police. "As demented as he was, he really liked scoping and playing little mind games. He said he was planning to be a cop next."
A life of foster homes and jail cells had left Mr. Power friendless and with few social skills, although he was capable of appearing genial and harmless until it was too late. His plan was to talk his way into his targets' apartments disguised as a telephone repairman, and to rape them.
Isolating beautiful women who attracted him the most, Mr. Power tracked them in search of their identities, their geographical orbits and their living arrangements.
His methods were chillingly cunning. They included alighting from apartment elevators a floor above the one where his quarry had got off, and then running to check for fresh imprints in the carpet outside each door to determine which unit a target had entered.
Mr. Power also routinely listened for voices at apartment doors to detect whether women lived alone. He smelled doorways for traces of perfume, and he was adept at picking locks.
He also had a fondness for fiddling with electronic gadgetry such as oscilloscopes and Dictaphones, equipment he attempted to modify to enhance or distinguish voice patterns.
"With the Internet and the kind of technology that's available today for creating a fake identity, can you imagine what he would have been capable of?" Ms. Gardner asked. "I think he could do a much better job now."
Sheryl Gardner moved to Toronto from Ottawa in 1978 to pursue a career as a fashion model. On the weekend she died, she had cancelled a plan to return home for the Canada Day holiday because of a modelling assignment.
Police received a mysterious call that evening tipping them off to the location of a body. They found Ms. Gardner, naked and severely beaten, in her 16th-floor apartment in Toronto's gay district. Her head was so badly caved in with a hammer that detectives initially thought she had blown it off with a gun.
Carolyn Gardner vividly recalls being awakened at her Eastern Ontario cottage by a blood-curdling scream as her mother learned of Sheryl's murder. "I immediately thought: my life has changed and will never be the same again," she recalled.
Evidence at the murder scene baffled detectives Oldham and Boothby. Ms. Gardner appeared to have let her killer into her apartment, suggesting he was a friend or relative. Yet, the sexual assault and the frenzied violence pointed toward a crazed intruder.
Fearful of a similar attack, the detectives worked around the clock for the next six days.
They would eventually learn Sheryl Gardner was not Mr. Power's intended target that evening. He had heard a dog barking inside the apartment of the woman he had been casing for weeks, who was scheduled for death that night. Leaving the building in disgust, Mr. Power had chanced upon Ms. Gardner.
"He was in the lobby; Sheryl walked in and fit his profile," Carolyn Gardner said. "I still don't fully understand why it had to be her. If she had only stopped off to buy a loaf of bread. . . ."
It turned out that Mr. Power had devoted the next day to locating Sheryl Gardner's apartment. He had created a fake work order for telephone repairs, and called her number on various pretexts to listen for background noises that might reveal the presence of family or roommates.
Hours after the murder, Mr. Power placed the anonymous phone call to police, and sat back to watch the action in the streets below.
By a stroke of good luck, his next victim -- Suzy Gaudrault, another model -- managed to fend off Mr. Power's hammer blows, even grabbing his weapon long enough to deliver a blow to his forehead. Ms. Gaudrault had complied with his demands long enough that Mr. Power let his guard down. She ran screaming into the hallway of her apartment building -- the same building where Mr. Power's penthouse apartment was located.
"He surely intended to kill her, but she fought like a trooper," Mr. Oldham said. "Power was a big boy, and she was just a little professional model from Montreal. It was astounding. Without her, Ralph Power was planning to go through another 10 or 12 women."
Another clue proved vital. A man living in Ms. Gardner's apartment building recalled seeing in the hallways a prowler he noticed previously at an animal shelter. The detectives obtained employee lists for several animal shelters and came up with a known arsonist who had once poured gasoline into a woman's mail slot and lit it: Ralph Ernest Power.
They showed Ms. Gaudrault a photo lineup that included pictures of Mr. Power. She identified him instantly as her attacker.
In the meantime, media and public reaction had intensified when word leaked out that the prime suspect had been masquerading as a telephone repairman. Speed was of the essence, lest Mr. Power see the circle tightening around him.
On July 8, 1981, the homicide detectives pounced on Mr. Power just as he was attempting to flee his apartment with a few belongings.
To their horror and fascination, the man they had caught turned out to be what Mr. Oldham describes as "an absolutely classic psychopath." A chronic bedwetter with a history of cruelty to animals, Mr. Power had grown up devoid of remorse or empathy. He gabbed to the officers with uncontained excitement about his sexual fantasies and clever scams.
In a taped confession that has a permanent place in the Toronto police museum, Mr. Power proudly detailed the efforts he had put into his disguises and deception. He admitted to an obsession with women's sexuality.
Mr. Power spoke freely of possessing a cagey criminal side and a less-controlled side that took turns dominating his actions. "I'm looking at 25 [years in prison]," he told police. "It can't be prettied up. Look, I don't mind doing the 25, but I don't want to do it in the pen."
It was one of the first police confessions ever captured on tape. "There had been so many accusations over the years that people simply don't confess openly unless there is some cop whacking them with a phone book," Mr. Oldham recalled. "We proved that was all wrong."
At trial, Mr. Power pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Giggling and gesticulating in the witness box, he uttered a grim prediction that may yet damn his chances of being released on parole next year: "It might take me a month, but with all the pretty girls on the streets . . . it would be just too much to handle."
The jury didn't buy the insanity defence. On Feb. 6, 1982, it found him guilty of first-degree murder.
No sooner was he in prison than guards caught Mr. Power with a set of official-looking documents he had faked to make it appear that his violent attacks had no sexual component.
Eventually, the Gardner family emerged from an intense period of grief and, by unspoken agreement, rarely discussed either Sheryl's murder or Mr. Power until Carolyn launched her mission last winter.
Joining long-time victim rights advocate Steve Sullivan, Ms. Gardner used her e-marketing skills to help him lobby for the bill forcing convicted killers to give DNA samples by appearing at parliamentary committees, speaking to politicians personally and deluging the government with e-mail.
She is also using the Internet to raise awareness of Mr. Power's case and plans to oppose any parole application he makes.
Ms. Gardner and her parents also recently toured the penitentiary where Mr. Power is incarcerated -- Bath Institution -- just 30 minutes from where Sheryl is buried.
Ms. Gardner noted that one of the particularly worrisome elements of both Ms. Homolka's and Mr. Power's crimes are that they attacked women chosen at random, using carefully premeditated plans.
"They are both masters of deception," she said. "Karla played the roles of being the pretty girl next door and eventually the battered housewife -- both typically seen as non-threatening. Power played the roles of phone repairman and apartment superintendent -- again two roles that are typically non-threatening.
"Plus, both seem to show no remorse for what they did. The bottom line is simple: no one can truly feel safe with people like Power or Homolka living in their community. But it is Power who can remain deceptive, since he doesn't have the notoriety that Homolka does. With his quiet, methodical approach, he is a lurking danger."
Mr. Power probably summarized the threat he poses best from the witness box at his trial: "We have to protect society from people with problems like I have."
After his brush with Mr. Power, Mr. Oldham studied psychopathy closely. He said that although Mr. Power will be 53 if he gets parole, it will leave him far short of the burnout stage, where a deviant's sex drive diminishes.
"The scary thing is that people like him are not treatable," Mr. Oldham added.
Ms. Gardner fears that after being locked up for 25 years, Mr. Power's pent-up compulsions will be uncontrollable. "The thing that upset him most was that his plan was cut short," she said.
Getting Mr. Power's DNA into the data bank was an enormous step, Ms. Gardner said. "It might even connect him to another unsolved crime. And if he is released, it will deter him from committing another crime. That gives me comfort.
"Even when I was young, I knew I wouldn't be able to sit back and be quiet when he got out. I don't feel hatred for him; it is more a matter of him being incomprehensible. There is a part of me that wants him to know that nothing has been forgiven. It's not forgotten, and he's not forgiven."
Mr. Oldham said he intends to do what he can to help Ms. Gardner's mission. "She really has a lot of momentum going on this," he said. "We need to be extremely cautious with Ralph, because he is very intelligent and very much a charmer. He is a very, very scary person."
FAMILY'S 'HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF'; CONVICTED KILLER WAIVES PAROLE
The Toronto Sun
Thu 12 Jan 2006
Page: 11
Section: News
Byline: BY ALAN CAIRNS, TORONTO SUN
The sister of a Toronto model brutally murdered 25 years ago is relieved her sister's imprisoned sex killer has abandoned his parole hearing for another two years.
Ralph Power, 52, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in the hammer slaying of model Sheryl Gardner in her Isabella St. apartment.
Power ogled and stalked many young women before he singled out and tracked Gardner, 20, to her unit on July 2, 1981.
After posing as a telephone repairman to gain Gardner's confidence and get inside her apartment, he hit her in the head with a hammer during a struggle.
Afraid of being caught, Power rationalized that he had to bludgeon her to death with the hammer because if he let her survive she would just be "a vegetable" anyway.
Already eligible for day parole, Power would have been able to seek full parole release in June. But he recently waived his full parole hearing until May 2008.
The move comes after Gardner's younger sister Carolyn raised a public outcry about his potential release.
The National Parole Board gave no reasons for Power's move.
"We as a family feel huge relief ... at least for now," Carolyn Gardner said yesterday.
But the family also knows a showdown is inevitable with the man they believe is an incurable psychopath. Gardner says the family intends to fight Power's release until "we think he is not a threat to public safety."
When he murdered Gardner, Power was months out of prison and still under parole supervision after serving eight years of a 10-year sentence for almost killing a woman after pouring gas through a letter slot and setting it ablaze.
Trial evidence showed Power received his thrills from ogling sunbathers and women in the St. Jamestown area through the lens of a 1,000-mm telescope mounted on a tripod in his penthouse unit.
At the time of the murder, he kept a detailed inventory of 15 area women he was stalking.
Just before murdering Gardner, Power followed her to her apartment and later traced her telephone number.
He bluffed his way into her unit by masquerading as a telephone repairman, decked out with a belt and tool kit, test phone, hard hat and a hammer.
Six days after he killed Gardner, Power tried the same tactic on another woman. He hit her in the head with the hammer three times, but she was able to grab the hammer and hit him back. He was stunned and she escaped.
Carolyn Gardner lamented that details about Power's rehabilitation are shielded from the family because of privacy laws.
"I often think if we we knew Power was truly trying to change, truly responding to treatment or medication, then maybe we would feel less fear at his potential release," she said.
"But only knowing what we know keeps our pain and our fear very real."
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