Canada - Richard Oland, 69, brutally murdered, St John, NB, 7 July 2011

[deugirtni]

DO mentioned in his interrogation that RO, in addition to having some kind of a bleeding scalp issue, used to.. and I can't type this without my stomach violently churning.. chew his cuticles until they bled.. omg. So disgusting. But I don't recall hearing any mention of that at trial?

I found the discussion surrounding the DNA very interesting too. Although blood was identified, and RO's (and DO's) DNA was identified in the lower inside sleeve of DO's brown jacket, they can't say whether the DNA came from the blood, therefore, from what I can understand, they can't say for certain that it was in fact RO's blood.

 

[deugirtni]

Also interesting.. the high importance apparently, of DO saying he had worn a navy jacket, when he had in fact worn a brown jacket.. apparently that was one of the key points of how the jury could have found him guilty.. the judge also mentioned it, as if it's some big thing. This, even though DO had worn the navy jacket at some point during that same day. And at the time when DO had been brought in for questioning, he didn't understand it to be an interrogation. It seemed to me that he was in there just chatting his head off about the quirkiness of his father as a person, perhaps to lend some knowledge of him to the police to potentially help them with their investigation. During the initial part of the 'interrogation', DO was asked what he was wearing and he said the navy jacket. Then later, when LE changed their tactics and were starting to outright accuse him, they suggested he could call legal counsel, which he took advantage of. From that point, DO wasn't saying anything, or at least, hardly anything... so... just goes to show how the advice of lawyers to NOT EVER to speak to police is very good advice. IF DO is innocent, and I believe that he is, he said this simply in error, and not understanding that each word he spoke would be scrutinized because he was their prime and only suspect. Then it turns out to be one of the major points of his original conviction. Imagine, if he had said from the start that he wanted to speak to a lawyer and said nothing else, they wouldn't have had that sticking point... they also would've assumed his guilt right away, however they seemed to be doing that regardless. imo.

 

[casesensitive]

I don't remember knowing about the reward offer, nor the preliminary hearing judge saying police had tunnel vision? Wow. Where did you see this stuff? Has anyone read any of the books written about the murder and the first trial?

I read one book "Shadow of Doubt: The trial of Dennis Oland by Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon. I didn't learn much more than from reading about the trial on mass media.

Here is the info you asked about.

The judge who committed Dennis Oland to trial said police were too quick to conclude that Oland killed his father, and that there were many unanswered questions about the case. Judge Ronald LeBlanc also said the Crown failed to prove at the preliminary hearing that Oland had a motive to kill his millionaire father.

Judge in Oland preliminary hearing said Crown failed to prove motive

Chief [Bill] Reid declined the offer …[saying] that it would be unethical for the Saint John Police [Force] to accept it from my family because they believed that I was the person responsible for the death of my father.- Dennis Oland, sworn affidavit

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/dennis-oland-reward-police-1.3412616

 

[Arnie M]

Back on Saturday I watched the whole documentary series by CBC .... they actually did a pretty good job .... especially with the family and how Dennis was practically railroaded by the police.

I am good with all of that but in my opinion there is a glaring and obvious thing that was missing ...... Nobody in that family seems to care that there is a violent axe-hammer murderer still prowling the streets of St. John.

Probably because they all know there isn't one.

 

[TrishLiv]

One thing that I wonder about... what is the possible reasoning, if one is to believe that DO is guilty, for him taking his father's cellphone? It seems the two did not really communicate that way, from anything I've seen. I also read that they pored through mounds of email messages between the two, looking for anything nasty, and found nothing. Yet on the other hand, the mistress's messages are filled with venom. I wonder if LE ever confiscated DS's cellphone to do a forensic examination of it to see if any messages had been deleted and what any such possible messages may have said?

I've thought about this a lot. And I mean too much, lol. Its the human flaw in the case.

After obsessively pouring over the interrogation video, I am thinking he took the phone to try to make this look like a robbery. He mentions a few times that "a crackhead" looking for "electronics" could have done this... y'know how crackheads take things that don't make sense "for 20 dollars" to buy drugs. iPhones can be easily sold on the street.

Another thought I had about the cell phone was that Richard could have had it in his hand, ready to call 911 and so the killer removed it to prevent that, then got their prints on it. Maybe they took it to remove evidence that could lead to them.

I truly hope that SJ police would have gone through all cell phone/text records for RO, DO, DS, The Oland Family. Richard's business associates. But why can't we access them?

American cases release everything... Can we request documents from the Saint John police? I'd like to see these emails that show "nothing".

 

[deugirtni]

This article indicates the only investigation done on Jiri was asking him two separate times about his whereabouts on July 6, 2011. Unbelievable!

"He said police never sought his bank or phone records. Gold said the police only spoke to him twice to ask where he was on July 6, 2011. "That was the extent of their investigation?" Gold asked. " I believe so," he replied."

‘Answer your damn phone’: Woman who had affair with Richard Oland tells murder trial of final calls, texts

 

[deugirtni]

.... I truly hope that SJ police would have gone through all cell phone/text records for RO, DO, DS, The Oland Family. Richard's business associates. But why can't we access them?

American cases release everything... Can we request documents from the Saint John police? I'd like to see these emails that show "nothing".

Other questions centred around the lack of evidence concerning a financial or emotional motive; a computer forensic expert hired by the family had found no antagonistic emails or other messages between Dennis and his father, even after mining an electronic history the size of “the Library of Congress 10 times over.”

How the Oland family murder trial took New Brunswick by storm

 

[deugirtni]

I've thought about this a lot. And I mean too much, lol. Its the human flaw in the case.

After obsessively pouring over the interrogation video, I am thinking he took the phone to try to make this look like a robbery. He mentions a few times that "a crackhead" looking for "electronics" could have done this... y'know how crackheads take things that don't make sense "for 20 dollars" to buy drugs. iPhones can be easily sold on the street.

Another thought I had about the cell phone was that Richard could have had it in his hand, ready to call 911 and so the killer removed it to prevent that, then got their prints on it. Maybe they took it to remove evidence that could lead to them.

I truly hope that SJ police would have gone through all cell phone/text records for RO, DO, DS, The Oland Family. Richard's business associates. But why can't we access them?

American cases release everything... Can we request documents from the Saint John police? I'd like to see these emails that show "nothing".

It seems that police did no investigating whatsoever, other than asking a few cursory questions of anyone other than DO, imho. And within hours they had already formed a belief (as per interrogation on same day body was found) that DO was the guilty party. That was obviously without any investigation at all. There hadn't been time yet. Nobody else was even worthy in their eyes to even check out. Just unbelievable to me. Too bad we don't have something like the FBI here, that would automatically visit murder cases in smaller cities where these types of things don't happen and therefore the local cops don't have experience in investigating such crimes. Maybe we wouldn't have so many screwups.

Even Bob McFadden (sp?) isn't beyond suspicion, as far as I'm concerned. I read that he would not willingly volunteer a DNA sample to police (apparently because he felt the police were so incompetent). He now runs RO's company. He knew everything about RO's finances. I also had read something about Bob and his son doing renos on the offices... did he leave a hammer behind and then take it with him? Did he leave a hammer behind and NOT take it with him, leaving it for another visitor's sudden, unexpected, and unintended use?

To me it is unfair to even consider DO as a suspect when none of the other players have had a fair shake at even being investigated at all. Some might believe that DO is lying about the jacket (which would be purely speculation), but what other lies would there be from others if others had been looked into seriously and questioned seriously, aside from a 'where were you on..'... ?

Crackheads are all over the news and known for invasions where they take stuff to sell for drugs. Therefore I don't think it's odd for that thought to have crossed DO's mind right off the bat. At the time, DO wouldn't have known that nothing had been taken. A used cellphone surely wouldn't have fetched money enough to have been worth such an attack? DO wouldn't have known at the time that he was bludgeoned over 40 times, which indicates an attacker with a huge amount of 'personal' anger towards the victim. The family already gathered from others that RO had been killed. The two things that came to DO's mind right off the bat, were the crazy stalking mistress and crackheads.

 

[deugirtni]

Back on Saturday I watched the whole documentary series by CBC .... they actually did a pretty good job .... especially with the family and how Dennis was practically railroaded by the police.

I am good with all of that but in my opinion there is a glaring and obvious thing that was missing ...... Nobody in that family seems to care that there is a violent axe-hammer murderer still prowling the streets of St. John.

Probably because they all know there isn't one.

Imho, they do seem to care, but nobody cares that they care. Perhaps they should offer a reward through private investigators, something similar to what the Sherman family did? See what pokes out of the woodwork?

Posted: Aug 14, 2019 3:06 PM AT | Last Updated: August 14, 2019

Dennis Oland's family has renewed its offer of a reward for information that might help find the real killer of his father, multimillionaire Richard Oland.

The move comes after Saint John police Chief Bruce Connell said Tuesday that the force has no plans to resume the 2011 investigation, despite Dennis Oland being found not guilty of second-degree murder at his retrial last month.

"The family of Dennis Oland would certainly renew its offer of a reward, something that may provide the police with additional information or new evidence, which Chief Connell has suggested is required for further investigation to take place," a statement issued Wednesday by Oland family lawyer Bill Teed said.
....
The Oland family said, "sitting and waiting for clues to be delivered … is a very disappointing response."

"We would have thought that the complete re-examination of the evidence by fresh eyes — a common step used by many police forces in reviewing old cases — would have been the obvious next step," the statement said.

"As a family, we believe our husband and father deserves better."

During Oland's retrial, defence lawyer Alan Gold told the court the family had offered to post a reward for information leading to the arrest of Richard Oland's killer two months after his bludgeoned body was discovered.

But the response of then-chief Bill Reid was, "It would not be proper for us to issue this reward because … we know Dennis did it," Gold alleged.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-...-reward-police-investigation-murder-1.5246876

 

[casesensitive]

Hi TrishLiv, re your statement:

"After obsessively pouring over the interrogation video, I am thinking he took the phone to try to make this look like a robbery. He mentions a few times that "a crackhead" looking for "electronics" could have done this... y'know how crackheads take things that don't make sense "for 20 dollars" to buy drugs. iPhones can be easily sold on the street."

If DO (or anybody) took RO's cell phone to make it look like a robbery, wouldn't they also take his Rolex watch and wallet? Leaving those valuable items behind kind of blows the robbery theory imo.

The iPhone was the only thing that was missing from the multimillionaire's office at 52 Canterbury St., while valuable items, such as his Rolex watch, wallet, and the keys to his BMW, which was parked outside, were all left untouched.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/day-11-dennis-oland-retrial-1.4942302

 

[MistyWaters]

I truly hope that SJ police would have gone through all cell phone/text records for RO, DO, DS, The Oland Family. Richard's business associates. But why can't we access them?

American cases release everything... Can we request documents from the Saint John police? I'd like to see these emails that show "nothing".

I’ve not noticed all American cases release everything although some have Sunshine laws whereby the disclosure released to the defence is also released to the general public.

But not so in Canada. Our privacy and confidentiality legislation would definitely prevent SJ police from releasing investigative files to anyone particularly since no further charges have been filed by the Crown. IMO it would be very difficult to convict another person even if there was overlooked evidence present at the onset because once again lack of due diligence in processing the crime scene would come into play. As the Judge who found DO not guilty remarked “suspicion is not enough to base a conviction”. However that could all change if new evidence arises in the future. JMO

 

[jillybean51]

Sorry, I must have missed that part.. which part can that be seen in? Soon I will have to watch all of them again.

I believe Part 3 or 4?

 

[casesensitive]

Just to note, it wasn't R. McFadden, it was the building owner, John Ainsworth who was having work done on the spare office. He was the owner of the Printing Press below RO's office.

RO's secretary MA testified at trial about the work being done in that office. Strangely, Ainsworth testified that there was NO work being done. His conflicting testimony was never explained.

That wasn't his only conflicting testimony. You will recall that Ainsworth (and his friend A. Shaw) gave a police report statement saying they heard the thumping noises coming from RO's office around 8pm. At trial, Shaw testified the time was between 7:30 and 7:45 pm. Ainsworth changed his original statement to between 6:00 and 8:00 pm, which therefore, included the time when DO was still at his father's office. Judge Morrison rejected JA's revised timing, noting that Shaw was a credible witness.

If LE had performed a decent investigation, I think Ainsworth should have been thoroughly investigated. He was in the building when RO was killed (after hours-his shop was closed), RO was looking for new office space which could have sparked an argument (he presented in court as a crusty, angry, personality type), he had inside access to the second floor offices, he had a bathroom downstairs where he could have cleaned up, and he could have cleaned any bloody footprints leading from RO's office. Luminal could have shown a trail leading right down to his shop.

I am definitely not saying JA is guilty, but I use him as an example of how early onset, LE tunnel vision excludes proper investigation of anyone else. jmo

 

[deugirtni]

I believe Part 3 or 4?

Thanks, I will start with 3 when I start relistening ;/

 

[deugirtni]

Just to note, it wasn't R. McFadden, it was the building owner, John Ainsworth who was having work done on the spare office. He was the owner of the Printing Press below RO's office.

RO's secretary MA testified at trial about the work being done in that office. Strangely, Ainsworth testified that there was NO work being done. His conflicting testimony was never explained.

That wasn't his only conflicting testimony. You will recall that Ainsworth (and his friend A. Shaw) gave a police report statement saying they heard the thumping noises coming from RO's office around 8pm. At trial, Shaw testified the time was between 7:30 and 7:45 pm. Ainsworth changed his original statement to between 6:00 and 8:00 pm, which therefore, included the time when DO was still at his father's office. Judge Morrison rejected JA's revised timing, noting that Shaw was a credible witness.

If LE had performed a decent investigation, I think Ainsworth should have been thoroughly investigated. He was in the building when RO was killed (after hours-his shop was closed), RO was looking for new office space which could have sparked an argument (he presented in court as a crusty, angry, personality type), he had inside access to the second floor offices, he had a bathroom downstairs where he could have cleaned up, and he could have cleaned any bloody footprints leading from RO's office. Luminal could have shown a trail leading right down to his shop.

I am definitely not saying JA is guilty, but I use him as an example of how early onset, LE tunnel vision excludes proper investigation of anyone else. jmo

I was sure I had read somewhere, or heard somewhere, at some point, that 'Bob' had been doing some work in RO's office space, along with his son. I will have to dig up whatever I am thinking of and report back.. prob not til later this eve.

How do we know that RO was looking for different office space? That is interesting.

 

[casesensitive]

I was sure I had read somewhere, or heard somewhere, at some point, that 'Bob' had been doing some work in RO's office space, along with his son. I will have to dig up whatever I am thinking of and report back.. prob not til later this eve.

How do we know that RO was looking for different office space? That is interesting.

Deugirtni, I was referring to the renovations being made to the spare "office". Perhaps you are thinking about G. McFadden using the spare "desk" in RO's office. Bob McF. shared RO's office full time.

The computer in question was located at a spare desk in the office, which was being used that summer by Galen McFadden, who was helping Oland with a family tree project he was working on by scanning old photographs and other material.
McFadden is the son of Robert McFadden, who worked in Oland's office, was co-executor of Oland's will and went on to become the president of Far End Corporation, the court has heard

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/oland-murder-trial-bathroom-1.3258375

Regardless, I agree that both McFaddens should have been looked at closely during the investigation, and perhaps they were-- but too little, too late, and with no untainted evidence at the crime scene.

It is true that RO was looking for a new office rental. Unfortunately, this info is buried in all the media court tweets. You have to trust me on this one.

eta revised final sentence

 

[deugirtni]

Interesting (to me) that the note that DS asked RO in a text on the morning of the day he died if he'd 'found' from her, and he'd replied that he did receive it and that it was in his office, was never found, along with the phone.

 

[TrishLiv]

Hi TrishLiv, re your statement:

"After obsessively pouring over the interrogation video, I am thinking he took the phone to try to make this look like a robbery. He mentions a few times that "a crackhead" looking for "electronics" could have done this... y'know how crackheads take things that don't make sense "for 20 dollars" to buy drugs. iPhones can be easily sold on the street."

If DO (or anybody) took RO's cell phone to make it look like a robbery, wouldn't they also take his Rolex watch and wallet? Leaving those valuable items behind kind of blows the robbery theory imo.

The iPhone was the only thing that was missing from the multimillionaire's office at 52 Canterbury St., while valuable items, such as his Rolex watch, wallet, and the keys to his BMW, which was parked outside, were all left untouched.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/day-11-dennis-oland-retrial-1.4942302

Yeah, it's weird. Maybe DO thinks crackheads are really dumb. He never once asked if anyone took anything, in his interview.. but was throwing theories out like quarters, cha-ching!

Are you suggesting it leads to the mistress because taking the phone would be her style?

Why do you think the killer took the phone?

 

[TrishLiv]

I’ve not noticed all American cases release everything although some have Sunshine laws whereby the disclosure released to the defence is also released to the general public.

But not so in Canada. Our privacy and confidentiality legislation would definitely prevent SJ police from releasing investigative files to anyone particularly since no further charges have been filed by the Crown. IMO it would be very difficult to convict another person even if there was overlooked evidence present at the onset because once again lack of due diligence in processing the crime scene would come into play. As the Judge who found DO not guilty remarked “suspicion is not enough to base a conviction”. However that could all change if new evidence arises in the future. JMO

I'm with you on that point, MistyWaters, with the exception of new evidence, I don't see this ever being solved. This killer has gotten away with murder- whoever the heck did it.

I'd like to see Canada ease up on some of these privacy laws. Let's release The Disclosure to the public. Let's allow cameras in all court rooms. Because, when we are allowed to see that kind of stuff, it holds the police more accountable for their actions. And helps the public understand better what happened, so we can learn from it.

In the end, I am more upset with the police than the killer... and that's pretty messed up.

 

[MistyWaters]

I'm with you on that point, MistyWaters, with the exception of new evidence, I don't see this ever being solved. This killer has gotten away with murder- whoever the heck did it.

I'd like to see Canada ease up on some of these privacy laws. Let's release The Disclosure to the public. Let's allow cameras in all court rooms. Because, when we are allowed to see that kind of stuff, it holds the police more accountable for their actions. And helps the public understand better what happened, so we can learn from it.

In the end, I am more upset with the police than the killer... and that's pretty messed up.

I agree, there definitely should be cameras allowed in the courtroom. It used to be no electronic devises were allowed but for some unknown reason now our Court system seems to be stuck midway, onto tweeting which isn’t really any different than reporters scribbling notes. Although it’s instantaneous, it’s impossible to capture the entire essence of what’s occurring within the Courtroom.