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| Image: CTV News |
Who’d ever think that something as dark and nasty as Murder in the First Degree would ever happen in a place like Sandycove Acres? It’s definitely the closest I've ever been to it, outside of murder mysteries, the sustenance of my reading life. I’d even thought about writing one (fictional, of course). Then I decided that I’d rather be reading them, without having to write them first.
It’s different, though, when murder happens only a short block from where you live. The reactions of various residents dumbfound me and I wonder about the mentality of some old people. Though my hair colour speaks to maturity (yep, I’m a grey hair), I like to think of myself as an open-minded person, who does not have the audacity to think that I should be judge, jury and executioner. I’ll leave that to a higher being.
For a few days after this horrific act, comments made by some of the residents I meet in my travels, astound me and I shake my head in wonderment that these people truly believe what they believe. What do they believe you ask? Why, their thinking is that people ‘like that’ shouldn’t be allowed to live in Sandycove Acres. They believe that something like murder couldn'’t happen here in Sandycove Acres and even more astonishing, shouldn't happen here. I ask you, why should Sandycove Acres be exempt? Are we not all human? If you prick us do we not bleed?
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| Image: Innisfil Journal, Mark Wanzel |
Regretfully, on that beautiful sun-shiny day, one person inflicted upon the fragility of old age, an apparently impulsive act of anger and yes, perhaps, even rage and struck her. Only the two people in that house, that day, truly know what catalyst loosed the demons which had been chained for years. Even with the intensive police presence, Command Post and CSI-type investigation, and a trial (I assume one’s coming), will we ever know the truth of that day? There is only one person left alive who can relay the events which lead to the end of this apparently beloved woman’s life. One of the things that I have learned in this life time, is that there’s always two sides to a story and the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. We will only know one side of this story - his. How can the truth be found if there is no middle?
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| Image: CTV News |
As I make my daily rounds with Sofie, The Wonder Dog, there is no other topic of conversation. On the day it happened, one of the residents I see frequently on my walks, told me what happened, mentioning that the police and the “CIA” had blocked off the street and weren't telling anybody anything. It took me a couple of minutes but then my lips twitch in amusement when I realize that the “CIA” is the CSI (Crime Scene Investigators), working out of their enormous trailer, referred to as “Mission Command” by another man I met a day or so later.
A few days later, I stop by the Administration building to drop something off, and I pass on a few of the comments I've been privy to, to Joanie, one of the receptionists and also a resident of SCA. One of remarks was, “I've never had to lock my door in all the years I've been living here but I’m going to start now.” I was gob smacked when Joanie agreed that people shouldn’t have to lock their doors here in Sandycove Acres.
Are people here so naive that they still think that way in this day and age? Just because SCA is a little ‘out there’ as far as location goes, do the bad guys not have cars? Hell, even feet will do – there are quite a number of residences in the neighbourhood, outside of SCA. Bad guys live anywhere and everywhere.
I share a story with Joanie, which I had heard from an ‘older’ woman about a year ago. She lives in the south end of South Park and she warned me to make sure to keep my car doors locked as someone had ‘broken into’ her (unlocked) car and stolen the quarter she kept there for the shopping cart at No Frills. Imagine, someone who is desperate (dumb?) enough to risk being caught and charged with theft, all for the gain of a quarter.
Being a ‘city’ girl most of my life, despite moving to SCA from the Town Down Under a couple of years ago, I always lock my doors, whether house or car. Why wouldn't I? There are some strange characters living in South Park and I've met a number of them. Some of them even live on my street. A few people were muttering about making SCA a gated community. Hmmm, I wonder, how would that be accomplished? There are acres of property loosely ‘guarded’ by split cedar rails and patchy cedar hedges. Each part of the park, North and South sides, have two access roads. How much would it cost to barricade us in here? For our own protection, of course. Do these people even stop to think about what they’re saying before it flies out their mouths? The man who stands accused lives but a few yards from their homes.
Interestingly enough, Joanie goes on to tell me how, not that many years ago, some of the residents did ask (demand?) that the park be gated. They backed off pretty quickly after SCA admin looked into it and advised that it could be done but that the cost would be prohibitive. Oh, and that the cost would be passed onto the residents (of course). Who did they think would pay? I find the mind set here pretty weird a lot of the time. There is such a sense of entitlement I haven’t quite figured out why, yet. Oh, and then, after the demands have been made and quite often met, they start airing their resentment about having SCA Administration interfering in their lives. Cake, anyone?
The person I feel for the most is the one left behind to cope with the messy aftermath – his wife. Believe me, people here are not subtle with their feelings. Some people are surprised that someone “like that” is even married. Sadly, it seems no one is shy about sharing their thoughts. Some people have even had the effrontery to voice them to this beleaguered woman, who is sticking by her man.
The bail hearing was held Friday, June 7, 2014, a week to the day of The Homicide. I haven’t heard the outcome but I’m sure if the man who stands accused of this crime does get bail and is released and comes back to South Park, I will hear about it soon enough. There is a very real possibility that he will be released until the trial, despite some of the residents’ assertions that he’s already locked up for life because of his mental health issues, the proverbial key tossed into Lake Simcoe – it and him never to be seen again.
