| Somewhere in our

| midst is a murderer

_ Police have no killer an

By CHRISTIANA WIENS
SHE WAS brutally murdered in a
southside townhouse a year ago
tomartow and somebody knows

- who did it. me

That’s the theory behind Ter-

race RCMP’s latest appeal for in-
"formation. into the Linda Lefranc
murder investigation.

Lefranc; a business administra-
tion student at Northwest Com-
munity College, was stabbed to
death in her Braun Street ‘town-
house. during ‘the early morning
hours of Dec. 9, 1998,

\-Her-death. began an investiga-
tion involving the local serious
crimes unit calling on support
from officers'in Vancouver, Prince
George and Prince Rupert.

A year later, RCMP have no
one in custody,

Police say there were no signs
of forced entry into the townhouse,
That suggests Lefranc may have

known her attacker, but doesn’t -

mean 4 stranger couldn’t have en-
tered the apartment.

- Five weeks into the investiga-
tion, ‘Lefranc’s ex-husband and
Closest family relatives were
eliminated as people of interest.

Officers also’ fanned out
through the. neighbourhood sur-
rounding Lefranc’s southside
townhouse in an attempt to find
someone who many have seen un-
usual activity that night.

The blitz generated hundreds of
calls and tips to the detachment,
but nothing solid turned up.

RCMP officers told locals not
fo panic at the thought of a ran-
dom murderer on the loose, but

“did advise people to lock their
doors justin case.

The detachment is in regular
contact with Lefranc’s family. in
Kitimat, keeping them up to date
on the status of the investigation.

_ The family, who declined an
interview, said they were happy
with RCMP’s work.

Thal work, includes calling in a
profiling ‘unit, or police, section
trained to. analyze the {crime
- Scene evidence and ‘create a

“physical and psychological profile
-of the killer, but those results are
based on probabilities.

Lead investigator Corporal An-

Transition house staff member, Carolyn Bennett,
places a photo of Linda Lefranc on a tabla along
with photos of 14 women murdered at the L'ecole
Polytechnic in Montreal Dec. 6,
be remembered in part of the transition house’s an-

nual ceremony to pay tribute

have died violent deaths at the hands of men.

Lefranc remembered
in annual ceremony

THE TERRACE TRANSITION house was one of a few
local places that took lime out December 6 to remember
Linda Lefranc’s death in their annual ceremony to re-

member the Montreat massacre.

Lefranc’s violent death last year, just two days after
Dec. 6 anniversary, localized the issue of violence

against women in Terrace.

“It just goes ta show you don’t have to look very far,”
said transition house coordinator Debbie Scarborough.
The Montreal Massacre centres around the tragic
deaths of 14 women who died at the hands of a lone
_gunman in the engineering wing of the L’Ecole Poly-

technic 10 years ago.

The gunman, Mare Lepine, who shot himself at the
scene, left a suicide note blaming female engineering
sttdenis and feminists for ruining his life after he was
denied entry to the program. The day has become a ral-
lying cry to stop violence against women in Canada.

Terrace hosted two memorials for the Montreal Mas-
: sacré — a candlelight vigil for women only at the transi-
tion house and a community vigil at Ksan House,

d few clues a year after Linda

Ke

pan

ders Udsen said the profile likely
won’t be released.
“That would be something we

types af murder to solve because
officers simply don’t know a lot of
what happened.

Lefranc was

slain

ane

Aas

TERRACE RCMP Constable Trent Johnson, outside Lefranc's Braun Street townhouse, is one of

four crime investigators here working on the Linda Lefranc murder investigation.

would consider if there were abso-
lutely no other leads or anything,”
he ‘said last week. “We're not
there yet.”

“The number of viol-
ent serious crimes is
above average for a
city this size."

The RCMP are thinking atout
a televised re-enactment of the
events of Dec. 9, 1998 in the
hopes of jarring somebody’s mem-
ory. , ;
efrane’s seven-year-old

dalighter, “who “discovdréd her’:
mother’s body, stayed’ with ‘her’
maternal grandparents immediate-

Crimes in which there are wit-
nesses and solid information, vir-
tually “a smoking gun,” as Udsen
puts it, are much different.

Compare that to the wide var-
icty of questions officers have left
unanswered in the. Lefrane case,
leaving officers only have the
crime scene itself to work with.

“These things are ‘not easy to
solve,” said Udsen. “We're still
dealing with issues, still getting
tips and we're actively looking
into same areas.”

One thing the RCMP don’!
have is a lot of manpower and
thal is a problem, said Udsen.

As it is, he’s had to take the
two officers who are supposed to
‘be working on iarcotics cases and
put them with the two people in

‘work in six months;” he said ‘of:
‘one of the results of taking drug:

Linda Lefrane

“We haven't done any dope.

officers off their assigned tasks.

ly after the incident and is now ©
with her father in Kitimat.
Udsen said the Lefranc investi-
oe Zition is one of the more difficult

THE LINDA LEFRANC
case isn't the only un-
solved homicide here.

The cases date to Moni-
ca Ignas, killed 25 years
ago, to Alaskan Phillip In-
nes Fraser, killed up north
in the late 1980s, to Lana
Derrick who went missing
in 1995,

RCMP Corporal Anders
Udsen, a 20-year member
of the force, says the job is
to keep working each case,

“You have to stay fo-
cussed on it,” he said,

Udsen, in conjunction
with investigators elsc-
where, will be spending
time in January re-visiling
the Lana Derrick case.

“We have 40 active tips
on it,” he said. “I definite-
ly think this is a solveable
case,”

Lana Derrick, 19, went
missing from Terrace on
Oct. 9, 1995. She had been
partying with friends and
was last seen at the Cop-
perside Foods store in
Thornhill getting into a
blue vehicle that drove
north.

A large search of family,
friends and: volunteers
failed to turn up any hint
of her whereabouts,

Terrace's most recent
missing person is Larry
Vu, an employee of the
Terrace Inn, who was last
seen leaving a friend's

“home at 9 am. on Feb. 24,
1998,

The 28-year-old'’s 1985
Gold Dodge Asies sedan
‘was found abandoned 10
days later off Kalum Lake
Drive near Deep Creck
and. provided officers with
no clues lo his -disap-
pearance. —

In this case. too, Udsen
says leads are still under

1989, Lefranc will

those women who

the serious crimes unit,

“The number of violent scrious
ctimes is above average for a city
this size,” said Udsen.

Unsolved murders
fill RCMP case files

Investigators do

poset

Lana Derrick

investigation.

Monica, Ignas, 15, went
missing from downtown
Terrace on Dec. 13, 1974,
RCMP officers belicve she
visited a Terrace hotel and
tried to hitchhike to a
friend's house,

Her body was found on
April 8, 1975 in a bush
arca 100 metres off a log-
ging road about one mile
from her home in Thorn-
hill.

In.1990 RCMP intensi-

fied their investigation of -

her death when three’ wit-
nesses caine forward. -
Under hypnosis one
woman described the vehi-
cle RCMP believe Ignas
got into and its driver. She
even remembered part of a
licence plate number,

Phillip Innes Fraser

went missing while ‘trav-
elling: south’ from “Alaska.
He left Anchorage, Alaska
on June 14, 1988 travelling
south from the Yukon
through Cassiar and Dease
Lake on Hwy37. On June
18 he stepped and picked
up a hitchhiker who

n't always ge

Prince’ George investigators
help out when needed, said Ud-
sen, but their territory is one of
the largest iu the country to caver.

t their man

RCMP officers believe
murdered him.

The next day Fraser's
black Volkswagen Jetta
was found burning in a
Prince George car wash.
The 23-year-old's bullet-
riddled body was found a
month later in a gravel pit
near Stewart.

Another man, Erie Cha-
tles Coss, is still missing
from the Dease Lake area.
Coss was travelling from
Fairbanks, Alaska to Ta-
coma, Washington in Oc-
tober 1997 when he disap-
peared.

He was last in contact
with friends and relatives
on Oct. 19, 1997. His 1989
light beige Ford truck was
found four days. later,
37km south of Dease Lake
and east of Hwy37 on an
unfinished B.C. Rail bed,

Dease. Lake RCMP say
there have been three pos-
sible sightings of Coss in
Prince Rupert, Prince
George and hitch-hiking
near Hazelton, but none of
them resulted in anything.

Stewart RCMP do not
suspect foul play in Coss's
case, |:

Ramona Wilson was 16
when she disappeared June
1], 1994 from Smithers.

She was last seen walk-
ing to Highway 16, appar-
ently to hitchhike to Moti-
cetown to see her boy-
friend,

Her decomposed body
was found a year later in a
wooded area in Smithers.
Police have nat said how
she was killed,

Alberta Williams' body
was found by hikers Sept.
25, 1989 on a trail 35km
east of Prince Rupert, a
morth after. she disap-
peared.

,

CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 8, 1999 - A5

The Mail Bag

He didn’t say that

Dear Sir:
~ In your Nov. 17 issue you ran a story about the
public meeting held at the Elks Hall on Saturday,
Nov. 13. Prior to the meeting I-had agreed to meet
privately with Mayor Jack Talstra and (as he said)
"a few concerned citizens" to’ discuss’ healthcare
issues. 1 mel with Mayor Talstra and three -mem-
bers of the organizers of the public: meeting for an
hour. Also present was my executive assistant and
the chairperson of the Terrace Community Health
Don Ritchey, one of the organizers, is quoted as

saying that I “blamed the doctors for Mills Memor- |

ial Hospital's budget problems”. We had an hour
discussion ‘during which we discussed a whole
tange of issues around the complexities ‘of hospital
service delivery, regionalization, nursing short-

ages, casts, funding, doctor's’ participation, and’

home support.

i must say, after checking with others at the |

meeting, that he has the account af my comments
on the role doctors play very wrong,

Efficient {cost effective) service delivery re-
quires the cooperation of doctors. There are a num-

ber of reasuns why Mills has not managed to live -

Within the budget and some are. well beyond the
control of doctors. However, to deny. that there is
an element of BC Medical Association politics in
some of the rhetoric in the current debate is not fa-
cing reality.

The BCMA is currently negotiating with ihe
province for a new agreement and fee structure.
They are also demanding that the Medical Ser-
vices Plan budget, which they agreed to cap in ex-

change for higher fees in the last agreement, must _

be topped up by some $80 million this year. If not,
they will go on strike for the last two weeks of next
March. The total extra demanded by BCMA is
about $190 million. There are about 7,500 physi-
cians in BC and about 5,000 are full-time.

That, in essence, is the discussion we had at the
meeting along with how B.C. currently pays $400
more per capita on healthcare than Albert the pro-
vince some people look at with envy

Doctors are to be respected for their long years
of training, and dedication and their professional-
ism when the praclice medicine. In the current de-
bate about how much to expect fram the taxpayer

for the hospital in which they hold hospital privi- |

leges it is only prudent to remember doctors can
also play politics.

Helmut Giesbreche,

MLA, Skeena

This is who we are

Dear Sir:

This letter is written with the intent to clarify
some misunderstandings in the community about
Concerned Citizens for Healthcare, According to
Mr. Helmut Giesbrecht's office we ure a group that

i. fe . free
message was, conveyed to My tnends

re

are trying to recall the present, goverament., This, «, ; -

at, the

Asddef

! JS al J Kit-., .
sumkalum community. Truth && ‘but! toup! ngs!

sought assistance from the government in trying to
resolve the crisis at Mills Memorial Hospital.

It would not make any sense to altempt to- recall
al this late date since an election is coming up in
the New Year.

Our time and energies are being spent in trying.

to address the community health council and the
governing officials to remedy the healthcare crisis.
We approached city hall on Nov. 8 and were told
by Mayor Jack Talstra that he had prearranged a

meeting for a group of us to meet with Mr. Gies- .

brecht. Since the group of concerned citizens were
growing in numbers the meeting wis arranged to
be at the Elks Hall. There were over 167 people in
attendance. Mr. Giesbrecht declined from meeting
with the public.

The meetings we have held have been public .

meetings, concerning a public healthcare facility,
and regarding public funds. But on the contrary the
emergency meeting with the eight community
health councils was a closed meeting. Neither the
media nor the public was permitted to attend. Our

group sought to have a couple representatives there —

as silent observers but we were denied.

On the local news and on Skeena Journal there -

were pictures shown of this emergency meeting
leading the public to believe that it was open but
in fact that news clip was taken from a local

healthcare meeting held at Mills. Memorial Hospi-

tal Noy. 18.
As of Dec. 1, the medical staff of Mills Memor-
ial Hospital is going ahead with their initialive to

keep admissions within the limits of the resources

of the hospital. They will continue to treat life-
threatening emergencies.

Over a hundred and twenty residents of the
community rallied outside of Mills Dec. 1 to show.
our support on this initiative and to encourage the
nurses and physicians.

The Concerned Citizens for Healthcare will not
subside until Mills Memorial Hospital has hired
more full-time nurses (RNs and LPNs) and there
have been more approved hospital beds by the
Ministry of Health.

The community health council has designated

$10,000 of the hospital budget for 4 media rela- -

tion's person lo improve their tarnished image, |
would rather see our tax dollars spent on the nurses
or hospital needs not an image.

We, the public must remember to look at the
nurses and beds to’ see if “real improvements”
have been made. You can't always believe what is
released to the media,

Ida Mohler,
Terrace, B.C,

Want clean air?

Dear Sir:

Here’s the WCB clean air solution. Open out-
door car bingos like movie drive-ins from the
1960s. Hold every event outdoors rain or shine.
Hire no workers and make every establishment self
serving, And the last one leaving British Columbia,
please tutn off the light's, :

, Manfred Bader, Thornhill, B.C.

More letters, Page A6

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