Half-Measured Justice
A cold-blooded murder of an innocent young woman always horrifies communities when it occurs. As it seems to do, on a too-regular basis. When men - whose critical social development was somehow truncated and twisted by an endowment of birth or familial failure, prey on women made vulnerable by their circumstances of relative physical frailty, temporary isolation, or unfortunate design of one kind or another - stalk, torture, rape and murder women.
The City of Ottawa just saw two such murder suspects claim guilt in the murders of two young women, one of whom was a 27-year-old psychology major, temporarily home on a summer break to spend time with her family. Out for a bit of a jaunt, having borrowed one of her brothers' bicycles, and taking it on a summer day out to a popular bike path in the nearby greenbelt; a popular activity in a frequently-used recreational area.
Except that, on this particular day, the weather prognosticators warned of sudden heavy rains, and just such an event occurred while Ardeth Wood was out riding her bicycle. During which time, a witness later informed police, she had observed Ardeth Wood being intercepted by a young man, and then led away by him, seemingly unwillingly. The onlooker made an unsuccessful 911 call, but when the weather broke and people began filtering out of the area, so did she.
That was the summer of 2003. A horrified public and a grieving family waited for the police to find incriminating clues after the gruesome discovery of her unclad body off the bike path, submerged in a creek, drowned. Appeals to the public to come forward resulted in some clues that proved inconclusive. But this police force was led by Chief Vince Bevan, formerly of the St.Catharines police department, in charge of the investigation into the serial murders of two teen-age girls in that area.
This was the case of the notorious husband-and-wife team of rapist-murderers, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, where an assemblage of clues and even interviews with Paul Bernardo as a potential suspect led to not even a slight break-through, until the infamous Karla agreed to a deal and gave witness against her husband, revealing in the process, the existence of the incriminating evidence beyond doubt, in the form of tapes the couple had made to celebrate their odious partnership in depravity.
As a result of the incapability of the team that Vince Bevan led, Karla Homolka, arguably as guilty as her husband, spent a relatively short time in prison - hardly reflective of the horrendous crimes she was guilty of committing. And under Chief Bevan's leadership of the Ottawa police force, they too proved as incapable of solving the murder of Ardeth Wood as were their predecessors in the Bernardo-Homolka case.
It was, in fact, the sharp eyes of a police officer in North Bay, alerted to the presence of a sex predator in the area through the attempted commission of his crime - and scrutinizing the Ottawa police profile and artist sketch - who reached the conclusion that this was the elusive suspect in the murder of Ardeth Wood. Christopher Myers, Ms. Wood's murderer, was then transferred to the custody of the Ottawa police. That was two years ago.
The trial was approaching, and Mr. Myers, through his lawyer, decided to plead guilty to second-degree murder, although he was charged with first-degree murder. A first-degree murder conviction would reward this man with a 25-year prison sentence, a second-degree conviction with a ten-year prison sentence; big, big difference. His plea bargain was accepted, ostensibly to save the Wood family from the anguish of a trial.
The evidence against Christopher Myers is beyond defence, irrefutable. The man is an ungovernable, conscienceless psychopath. Might he have felt remorse for the murder of this young woman? Not likely; undetected, he went on after her murder, to commit other offences: a 2003 robbery, a sexual assault a year later, another robbery another year, and finally the attempted sexual assault in 2005 in St.Catharines that saw an end to his career and freedom.
Is justice in the memory of a young woman's dreadful death well served by allowing this pathological monster to serve 8 years for her murder - having already served two years of the proposed-and-obligatory ten-year sentence for second-degree murder in custody...?
The City of Ottawa just saw two such murder suspects claim guilt in the murders of two young women, one of whom was a 27-year-old psychology major, temporarily home on a summer break to spend time with her family. Out for a bit of a jaunt, having borrowed one of her brothers' bicycles, and taking it on a summer day out to a popular bike path in the nearby greenbelt; a popular activity in a frequently-used recreational area.
Except that, on this particular day, the weather prognosticators warned of sudden heavy rains, and just such an event occurred while Ardeth Wood was out riding her bicycle. During which time, a witness later informed police, she had observed Ardeth Wood being intercepted by a young man, and then led away by him, seemingly unwillingly. The onlooker made an unsuccessful 911 call, but when the weather broke and people began filtering out of the area, so did she.
That was the summer of 2003. A horrified public and a grieving family waited for the police to find incriminating clues after the gruesome discovery of her unclad body off the bike path, submerged in a creek, drowned. Appeals to the public to come forward resulted in some clues that proved inconclusive. But this police force was led by Chief Vince Bevan, formerly of the St.Catharines police department, in charge of the investigation into the serial murders of two teen-age girls in that area.
This was the case of the notorious husband-and-wife team of rapist-murderers, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, where an assemblage of clues and even interviews with Paul Bernardo as a potential suspect led to not even a slight break-through, until the infamous Karla agreed to a deal and gave witness against her husband, revealing in the process, the existence of the incriminating evidence beyond doubt, in the form of tapes the couple had made to celebrate their odious partnership in depravity.
As a result of the incapability of the team that Vince Bevan led, Karla Homolka, arguably as guilty as her husband, spent a relatively short time in prison - hardly reflective of the horrendous crimes she was guilty of committing. And under Chief Bevan's leadership of the Ottawa police force, they too proved as incapable of solving the murder of Ardeth Wood as were their predecessors in the Bernardo-Homolka case.
It was, in fact, the sharp eyes of a police officer in North Bay, alerted to the presence of a sex predator in the area through the attempted commission of his crime - and scrutinizing the Ottawa police profile and artist sketch - who reached the conclusion that this was the elusive suspect in the murder of Ardeth Wood. Christopher Myers, Ms. Wood's murderer, was then transferred to the custody of the Ottawa police. That was two years ago.
The trial was approaching, and Mr. Myers, through his lawyer, decided to plead guilty to second-degree murder, although he was charged with first-degree murder. A first-degree murder conviction would reward this man with a 25-year prison sentence, a second-degree conviction with a ten-year prison sentence; big, big difference. His plea bargain was accepted, ostensibly to save the Wood family from the anguish of a trial.
The evidence against Christopher Myers is beyond defence, irrefutable. The man is an ungovernable, conscienceless psychopath. Might he have felt remorse for the murder of this young woman? Not likely; undetected, he went on after her murder, to commit other offences: a 2003 robbery, a sexual assault a year later, another robbery another year, and finally the attempted sexual assault in 2005 in St.Catharines that saw an end to his career and freedom.
Is justice in the memory of a young woman's dreadful death well served by allowing this pathological monster to serve 8 years for her murder - having already served two years of the proposed-and-obligatory ten-year sentence for second-degree murder in custody...?
posted by Pieface | 5:22 PM
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