They had a miraculous, if horrific, scam. Until 1999, a family of Seventh Day Adventists, trawled the streets of Toronto, Canada, looking for derelict and homeless victims to fill their sordid, crowded, filthy retirement homes they owned up north near the town of Huntsville. They took control of the seniors' old age pension cheques, cashed them in and kept the money. But it did not stop there. The pensioners started to go missing but their cheques kept being cashed. One senior escaped and blew the whistle.
The owners were arrested for fraud and four seniors were declared "missing believed murdered." One of the owners, Katherine Laan, already had a long criminal record for theft and extortion. In fact her most recent job was treasurer at a local Christian school that she bilked out of $25,000.
Yet at their fraud trial two years ago, only money was mentioned. Not murder. Incredibly, the local police could find no evidence of foul play and they could not find the bodies, so they gave up. Imagine the national outcry if four teenagers from the local high school had been declared,"missing believed murdered." But these were old folks, so who really gave a damn.
Well a few brave, local souls did, and earlier this year spoke out on 360 Vision, the national current affairs programme of Vision TV. They spoke of police indifference, of seeing blood in Katherine Laan's car and they pointed the finger not only at her but also at her brothers Walter, Paul and David. But . The rest of the God-fearers in this community suddenly developed a case of mass laryngitis every time a reporter spoke to them, with neary a word coming from their quivering lips. Their sullen eyes though were saying: we don't like strangers prying into things around here, even if it is about murder. It's local and it stays that way. A couple whispered to us that they would be killed if they said anything. One man said he knew who killed the seniors and some told 360 Vision, anonymously, where the seniors are buried. The 360 team checked all of these calls and found some to be hoaxes, other clumsy attempts to get on TV. With alarming hostility, Ontario Provincial Police Headquarters refused to say one word about this shameful case or to assist 360 Vision in any way. One can only surmise they are either hiding something or are incompetent.
Not long after the fraud case, that levied fines and ordered restitution, the oldest brother. Walter, went on a rampage of vicious home invasions, brutally attacking old folks he knew in the area. For this, at least, he got 12 years in jail.
360 Vision later found Katherine Laan, a convicted felon, running a private Aventist school with her sister who blurted out to the reporter on the phone "at least she hasn't killed anyone here."
The very next day after the one-hour documentary aired, Seventh Day authorities closed the school down.
And the four old folks? Still missing believed murdered. They are conveniently forgotten now, except by the killer or killers and those up here who know who did it and how but lack the courage to come forward. They may wish to pause and ponder the following quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr:
"Our lives begin to end
the day we become silent
about things that matter."
Note: The documentary,"Mystery In Muskoka," helped 360 Vision win its prestigous 2006 "Gemini" nomination for the best current affairs programme in Canada.
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1 comment:
John, it's been awhile since you wrote this article. Any further developments since?
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