X-Base Commander attempts suicide

[Kip Powick]

KINGSTON–Russell Williams, the former commander of CFB Trenton now charged with killing two women, made an elaborate and desperate bid to kill himself over the Easter weekend.

The incident has raised staff fears the former colonel won't survive until his next court appearance on April 29.

Sources at the Quinte Detention Centre in Napanee, Ont., tell the Kingston Whig-Standard that at roughly 5 a.m. Saturday the accused sex killer wrote a suicide note in mustard on the wall of his segregation cell.

The note was a farewell message saying his affairs are now in order and his feelings are too much to bear.

Aware that he was being closely watched, Williams, 47, jammed the lock in his cell door with cardboard and foil in an attempt to prevent staff from getting into his cell quickly and stopping him, sources said.

Using a cardboard toilet roll stuffed with more foil and cardboard, Williams stuffed it down his throat in an apparent bid to suffocate himself, sources said.

Staff were able to bust into the cell and rescue Williams.

He is now on 24-hour, one-on-one suicide watch inside the jail, sources said. It appears Williams had rehearsed his attempt the day before.

Sources said Williams jammed a pencil into the lock of his cell door on Friday to test how long it would take staff to unjam it. Maintenance staff arrived and opened the door within 15 minutes.

Williams is accused of killing Jessica Lloyd, 27, of Belleville, and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 37, of Brighton. Comeau worked at CFB Trenton. He is also accused of two home invasion-sex assaults on two women in the Tweed, Ont., area in September 2009.

[Moon The Loon]

Besides seeming to be an admission of guilt, perhaps he is trying to do the honourable thing, saving a lot of people a lot of grief.

[AME]

Honour is not a word I would use in describing anything about this man, I think the suicide watch should slip him a rusty tin can lid though.

[J.O.]

This act is not that of a man whose affairs are in order. This is an act of a desperate coward who just tried to commit one more cowardly act, rather than having to face the consequences of his actions in front of his peers. It's also a perfect build-up to an insanity defence. I wonder how the families of his victims would have felt if he had succeeded?

[Moon The Loon]

I wonder how the families of his victims would have felt if he had succeeded?

I agree with the first part of your statement Jeff. But in answer to the second part, having had a brother taken from me a long time ago by a violent action, I would have felt very satisfied.

Consider the track record of the courts with cases like this and the emptiness left within the victims as a result...

[Tango Foxtrot]

Would someone please explain to this guy that he should not try to jam the lock with his pencil, he should position it between his ribs, over his heart, and run into the door.

Try a little harder.