Legal Question

[Kip Powick]

Re - Tori Stafford..

In Ontario, does the body of the deceased have to be found before the "suspected" killer can be charged with First Degree Murder??

Seems the police are doing a lot of looking and you would think the prime suspect, if he admitted the crime, could lead them to the body. The girlfriend has been useless as to pointing out the location of the body.

[J.O.]

Murder charges have been pressed in the past without a body, but the burden of proof on the prosecution is pretty demanding without that key piece of evidence. But other forensic evidence has been used to earn successful prosecutions.

The girlfriend is not likely to be much help. She's had a very unfortunate life. One look at her mother on the news the other night pretty much said it all for me. Some people just shouldn't be parents.

[Specs]

Elizabeth Bain went missing not more than 100 yds from my house. No Body was ever recovered. Robert Baltovisch, her ex boyfriend, was charged and found guilty. He steadfastly maintained his innocence. There was no hard evidence linking him to her supposed death. (I say supposed because her body was never found)

While Bain, Baltovich and I travelled in the same circles at U of T we didn't really know each other. My friends who did know them tell me that he was a bit quirky in an eager beaver always trying to be everything to everybody kind of way/atitude that is common enough to find in young finance students who think the world is at their doorstep. Nobody I knew thought he was disturbed or twisted.

I also coincidentally had some knowledge of the the cop in charge. He was a high profile fella in the police union. I doubt he ever struck anybody as a shining example of Metro's finest. My own personal opinion of him is somewhat lower.

Anyways. Baltovich's eagerness to to help find the killer of his ex girlfriend sealed his fate. The cop zeroed in on him and never let go.

10+ yrs after his conviction, It was overturned and he was let go.

One of the factors in the overturned conviction was that Paul Bernando also knew of Elizabeth Bain at school. Although he hadn't been identified as P Bernardo at the time, the Scarborough rapist had been on a spree just before Elizabeth went missing. The cops never tied the rapist to Elizabeth but it was known Bernardo had spotted her around school and had commented on her looks. In the appeal of a conviction based on circumstantial evidence I'm sure that little bit of info was factored in.