GUILTY Canada - Melissa Richmond, 28, stabbed to death, Winchester, Ont, 24 July 2013

[ellabella]

Was going to post ths last night, though it now seems most likely that the body is hers(we just ont have that many of them here).

Melissa is missing from hometown, sounds like she decided to go for a drive( not rare IMO to go for a long drive or a drive to where her car was found for people from this area).

OTTAWA — Police were unable to say Sunday whether a body found in a ravine near Bank Street in south-side Ottawa was that of a woman missing from North Dundas.

The body was found near the parking lot of a Kelsey’s restaurant at 2208 Bank St. in which the car of Melissa Kelly Richmond, 28, was discovered Friday night.

“There are no linkages as of now,” said Ottawa police Inspector Chris Renwick.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/D...pearance+called+suspicious/8717132/story.html

 

[kmclaren]

Autopsy is scheduled for today. Still no ID thou, this article states body was "partially clothed" and had multiple stab wounds...

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/o...d+Monday+body+found+ravine/8720823/story.html

 

[dotr]

http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/07/29...nd-in-ottawa-ravine-a-homicide-victim-sources

"Richmond’s 2004 Chrysler Sebring was found nearby, in the mall parking lot, on Friday night. Her purse was still inside, according to family friends, who said it wouldn’t have been like her to drive that far at night.

The Bank St. site was a hive of police activity again on Monday morning. A large area surrounding the restaurant and the ravine area along Bank St. are still cordoned off behind police tape as officers continuing their search for evidence.

On Sunday, officers canvassed stores in the mall, looking for any possible surveillance tape, witnesses said"

 

[IsleOfBeads]

http://www.ottawapolice.ca/en/Media...-29/0b82de48-cdf6-44fd-b03b-af066de175ff.aspx

This is so sad. I'm orignally from this area.

 

[ellabella]

Isleofbeads: from where she was found, or where she lived? I am from near where she lived.

So sad. I know her husband is military, I just hope he is not deployed and is,able to be surrounded by family.

 

[IsleOfBeads]

Ella,
My sister lives in Winchester. From what my sis has told me, Melissa had been out with her hubby until about 11:30 p.m. and decided to go out for a quick drive. According to those who know her, she did this often. Her husband is at home. There is speculation she may have gone to Tim Hortons for a quick coffee. I hope they find who did this soon. The town is on edge.

All IMO

 

[ellabella]

How scary! My family is very close to there as well, and my sister in law is a nurse at the hospital.

At first I thought maybe she had gone for a drive into the city(we used t do that randomly when we needed t get out,etc) but it just doesn't seem like it. I wonder if she ran into someone she knew who asked for help/a lift? This kind of thing just doesn't happen there. Ya know? In the village my family is in, there hasn't been a murder in over 60 years, and before that about 60 more.

I think though that its often easy to forget that you don't really know someone, simply because you see them every day. There are many times in the past my car has broken down,etc that someone i "knew" from town would offer a ride or assistance. I generally would have a hard time telling you their name, or where they lived, but I felt like. "Knew them" anyway. It's a scary reminder.

 

[True Crime Gal]

This is so sad (I mean, it always is, but...). I remember seeing the signal boosted on Facebook when she went missing. I hope they can bring her justice soon.

 

[Joe Friday]

Ella,
My sister lives in Winchester. From what my sis has told me, Melissa had been out with her hubby until about 11:30 p.m. and decided to go out for a quick drive. According to those who know her, she did this often. Her husband is at home. There is speculation she may have gone to Tim Hortons for a quick coffee. I hope they find who did this soon. The town is on edge.

All IMO

Just seems strange that she would go out again after being out with her husband earlier. But I guess if others can confirm that she did this often than I guess it might be so.

The multiple stab wounds or as one article I read put it "stab wound-riddled body" seems a little personal to me. Almost like she knew her attacker and that person was mad. Some what of an overkill.

Hopefully an arrest will be made soon and justice served.

JMO

Link to article referenced: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2013/07/29/21008651.html

 

[Wondergirl]

Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Rest in Peace, Melissa.

“For now we’re still in standby, waiting for the police and coroners to finish their work and let us know where to go next,” posted Matlock Guse on Monday.

Guse is also a member of a medieval society that Richmond is a part of.

Anyone with information about the killing is asked to call Ottawa Police at 613-236-1222 ext. 5493, OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers at 613-233-8477 (TIPS).

http://www.standard-freeholder.com/2013/07/29/police-confirm-body-was-richmond

 

[Wondergirl]

Lots of info in this article:

Given the proximity between the location of Richmond’s car and where her body was found, Rabinovitch can’t understand why it took police so long to find her friend.

“It makes me angry,” Rabinovitch said. “I want answers.

“I want the chief of police to explain to me why nobody was in that ditch for two days, if her car was found at the Denny’s and her body was found in the ditch outside of the Kelsey’s.”

The post-mortem was put off until Monday and frequent updates to a Facebook group operated by friends and family who had been searching for Richmond re-iterated that police had not formally contacted the family with any details well into Monday afternoon.

Richmond, 28, was last seen leaving her home on Summers Road in Winchester on Wednesday night. Richmond had returned with her husband to their home around 11:30 p.m. after a day out with friends. That home would hours later be known as “Melissa HQ” — the home base that would anchor every effort to find Richmond, from truckers as far as South Carolina to neighbours driving to canvass in South Keys. Prior to her disappearance, Richmond’s friends might have known the home as Castle Greyskull, where she and her husband, avid historical re-enactors, would have hosted other medieval enthusiasts.

On Wednesday night, Richmond decided to take a drive, something she did frequently. Rabinovitch said she accidentally left her cellphone at home.

Her car, a gold 2004 Chrysler Sebring, with personalized licence plate RPGGIRL, was found in the South Keys parking lot on Friday night.

Richmond’s keys and purse were inside the car.

Friends knew her to frequent the South Keys area, where the Richmonds would go to see movies.

“It was kind of their hangout,” Rabinovitch said.

It makes sense to Rabinovitch, a South Keys resident herself, that Richmond would have gone to the South Keys Denny’s, the only place she says is open in the area at that time of night.

The manager of that Denny’s confirmed that police have seized surveillance video tape footage from the restaurant. The footage is only of the inside of the eatery, but the manager said no employees remember serving Richmond or a woman who looked like her.

It was a Denny’s employee who recognized the vehicle with personalized plates and reported the car parked in the lot to police. That man immediately contacted Rabinovitch to let her know he’d spotted the car

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/P...+with+multiple+stab+wounds/8720823/story.html

 

[Wondergirl]

I wonder if Sonia Varaschin's murderer has changed his MO?

Not many of these types of murders in Ontario.

Keys and purse found in her car, nobody at Denny's seen her in there and she was a regular, sounds like she never even left her car.

 

[Wondergirl]

Richmond had been last seen Wednesday leaving her home in a beige 2004 Chrysler Sebring, with the personalized licence plate RPGGIRL.

She was a dental hygienist, married for eight years to a Canadian soldier named Howard Richmond. She told her husband she was going for a late night drive at approximately 11:30 p.m.

Her vehicle was found by a Denny's Restaurant employee Friday night who saw her backpack and purse still in the car.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...body-suspicious-death-south-keys-autopsy.html

 

[LadyL]

there's gotta be a reason to 'go for a drive' at 11:30 p.m. - like picking up take-out food perhaps? or needing something at the variety store ... or gassing up for work the next morning ... or having an argument and needing to clear one's head

yes, people go for 'drives' but at that hour? idk - seems weird to me

 

[Wondergirl]

Melissa's workout clothes were in her backpack, according to comments here:

http://cornwallfreenews.com/2013/07...melissa-richmonds-car-was-found-july-28-2013/

 

[Wondergirl]

POLICE TAPE CORDONS OFF THE SCENE WERE A BODY WAS DISCOVERED NEAR THE SOUTH KEYS KELSEY’S AT 2206 BANK ST. IN OTTAWA ON SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2013. Credits: MATTHEW USHERWOOD/QMI AGENCY

Witnesses said Sunday police were also guarding a bag of what appeared to be clothes found on the ground near the Loblaws, which staffers had said wasn't there a night earlier.

It was business as usual at the rest of the plaza, although numerous people stopped to see what was going on and were shocked to discover a body had been found.

Yellow police tape cordoned off a large section of the parking lot surrounding the restaurant and forensic officers appeared to be measuring something on the ground, near where the bushes parted to walk through.

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2013/07/20130729-070936.html

 

[Wondergirl]

The Denny's on Bank St. where her car was found, is close to the Kelsey's, but, there surely must be some cameras from the other businesses that captured the before and after of this crime.

The perp either drove his vehicle to the Kelsey's, or he somehow got her to walk with him.

His vehicle MUST be on camera.

Here is a map, with goolge streetview available for both locations.

https://maps.google.ca/maps?saddr=K...QT6QjOTDEXZu95WUmEFQ&oq=kelse&mra=ls&t=m&z=17

 

[Wondergirl]

The "ravine" that Melissa was found in, was surely not the the trees in front of the Kelsey's, was it?

If so, my inclination is that the perp was on foot, and VERY local.

Residential buildings right across the road on Bank St.

Wow.

Here is a screenshot taken from my link.

The Denny's appears further using google maps, but, is actually technically right across the parking lot.

 

[humandoing]

Police searched fields and blocked off part of a road nearby their house today looking for clues...

"Ontario Provincial Police officers spanned the fields in the Chesterville and Winchester areas looking for clues in what they call an "ongoing investigation".
The area searched is close to the home of murder victim Melissa Richmond.
Richmond was reported missing last Wednesday, July 24, 2013. Her body was found in a wooded area at the South Keys Shopping Centre on Sunday, July 2013.

Ottawa Police confirm that the body recovered from a ditch in Ottawa’s south end on Sunday morning is that of 28-year-old Melissa Richmond of Winchester.
Police will not confirm if today's search is related to her murder.
County Road 9 leading into Chesterville was closed for a portion of the afternoon while police conducted the search."


http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/opp-search-chesterville-area-for-clues-1.1390939


Even if it was "normal" for her to go on late night drives in the country by herself, what was definitely not normal is the fact she "accidentally" forgot her cell phone...the time she did not return.

 

[Wondergirl]

Police searched fields and blocked off part of a road nearby their house today looking for clues...

"Ontario Provincial Police officers spanned the fields in the Chesterville and Winchester areas looking for clues in what they call an "ongoing investigation".
The area searched is close to the home of murder victim Melissa Richmond.
Richmond was reported missing last Wednesday, July 24, 2013. Her body was found in a wooded area at the South Keys Shopping Centre on Sunday, July 2013.

Ottawa Police confirm that the body recovered from a ditch in Ottawa’s south end on Sunday morning is that of 28-year-old Melissa Richmond of Winchester.
Police will not confirm if today's search is related to her murder.
County Road 9 leading into Chesterville was closed for a portion of the afternoon while police conducted the search."


http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/opp-search-chesterville-area-for-clues-1.1390939


Even if it was "normal" for her to go on late night drives in the country by herself, what was definitely not normal is the fact she "accidentally" forgot her cell phone...the time she did not return.

Picture of the link.

I strongly believe this was a crime of opportunity, by a young male, on foot, a resident in the Bank St. vicinity of where her body was found.

I am glad LE is ruling out the possibility that the crime may have happened close to home.

There must be witnesses to her being in that plaza. There is most certainly video.

OPP conduct search in Chesterville area in what they term is an on-going investigation. Police will not say if Tuesday's search is connected to murder of Melissa Richmond.

http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/opp-search-chesterville-area-for-clues-1.1390939