Amanda Vaughan
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 19, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - A little over a year ago, an arsonist, or arsonists, set fire to St. Joseph school here in Yellowknife.

The fire destroyed four classrooms and a mini gym right before the start of the school year, and left administration scrambling to find space for the displaced kids in other schools in town.

Charlene Catholique: as she was in 1990. - NNSL file photo

Last month, the incident popped up in an RCMP newsletter, declared a cold case due to lack of evidence, accompanied by the standard announcement to contact your local detachment with any information.

"The term 'cold case' isn't even really an official term," said Const. Roxanne Dreilich, the Yellowknife RCMP detachment's spokesperson. Dreilich said it's simply used for lack of a quicker way to describe a long-term ongoing investigation.

And according to her, the makings of a cold case are hardly standard.

"There are no cookie-cutter criteria that we automatically use, like 'it's been three months, now it's a cold case' sort of thing," Dreilich said. She said the case of the fire at St. Joe's was a good example of a case where the information dried up pretty quickly.

The leads that were initially discovered did not produce an arrest, though Dreilich said there were definitely "persons of interest" in the case, but there just wasn't enough information to make an arrest.

What is the exact moment a case becomes "cold?"

"It's when there is an absence of information that could lead to an arrest or a charge," said Dreilich. It could be a year, like the school's case, or it could be several.

Dreilich couldn't say how many cases the Yellowknife RCMP detachment considers cold, but said once an investigation stops moving forward in the detachment's hands, it would go to one of two different places: The Yellowknife RCMP's General Investigation Section (GIS) or the G Division's major crimes unit, who would be involved with any serious crime investigation anyways.

"After the initial investigation, a crime such as an aggravated assault or a homicide would become the responsibility of the major crimes unit," Dreilich said.

She said that on the opposite end of the spectrum, nobody is hanging on to long-term cases on unsolved broken windows or stolen bicycles.

"Occurrences like mischief or thefts or minor break and enters, if the initial investigation does not turn up with evidence leading to an arrest, those types of files are not usually re-visited once the investigation is done," Dreilich said.

In the case of Ronald Roy Villebrun, there was definitely cause to leave a light on in the investigation.

Villebrun attacked a woman with an axe in downtown Yellowknife in August of 2001, then disappeared without a trace.

At the time, Yellowknife RCMP, assisted by officers from Edmonton, launched a huge and heavily armed manhunt in the bush surrounding the city, finding only the truck he had been driving, and no more conclusive evidence of the man himself. He was believed to be dangerous, and had possibly armed, and was known to some as a skilled hunter and woodsman.

Police have been checking in on the case at regular intervals ever since, something Dreilich said is part of the cold case procedure.

"It would be assigned what's called a diary date," said Dreilich, going on the say that long-term cases get assigned the diary dates at varying intervals depending on the nature of the case. Three months or six months will go by, and then the officer who has the case under their care will look everything over again and check for new information.

"At that point, if there is no new information that could move the investigation forward, the diary date will be reset, and it continues on like that," said Dreilich.

She said in some cases, the diary date intervals could be as long as a year.

"That usually happens in cases where a suspect has been identified and charged, and there is a warrant issued for their arrest," explained Dreilich.

It's a description that would fit the Villebrun case.

In 2002, Yellowknifer reported that Villebrun had been spotted by several people in Edmonton, and that while police hadn't ruled out the possibility that he died in the bush outside of town, they also felt that the tips in Edmonton were very reliable.

"There is an outstanding Canada-wide warrant for him," Dreilich said of Villebrun.

"It is the belief of our major crimes unit that he is alive somewhere, and is aware of the warrant, and simply taking steps to avoid arrest," said Dreilich.

Almost 20 years ago, in July of 1990, 15-year-old Charlene Catholique, a resident of Lutsel K'e, was in Behchoko visiting friends around the time of the Dene National Assembly.

She was looking to hitch a ride to Yellowknife but was never seen again.

Dreilich said that a missing persons case opens up a number of possible paths for the investigation to go down.

"It depends heavily on the particulars of each individual case," she said, indicating whether the RCMP are looking for a lost person, a body, a murderer, or simply someone who might be associated with the missing person, all depends on each case.

In the case of Catholique, in the years following her disappearance, RCMP indicated that they suspected foul play, and were looking for a murder suspect.

"We also get a lot of cases where the person was last seen, say, hunting in the spring when the ice is thin, or that people known to the individual have indicated that they were thinking about moving away," said Dreilich.

She went on to say that in such cases, the investigation still has to remain open as long as the individual is not located, in spite of a high possibility that nothing criminal has occurred.

Dreilich said that even in the oldest cases, the RCMP have to be very careful about the things they say to the public.

A long-term case is still an open investigation, where, in the event of an arrest, prosecution could be jeopardized by the information they let loose.

"An initial investigation could turn up several pieces of information which lead it in a certain direction but not that key piece of the puzzle that is needed to make an arrest," she said.

Releasing information about the direction of the case can influence the public, and any further information that the RCMP might receive from them, she said.

And in a lot of cases, information from the public is what makes the difference.

The RCMP and Crime Stoppers urge anyone with any information on these examples, or any other crime, to contact them with the information.

"Tips from the community are important," said Dreilich.