[URL='https://www.newspapers.com/title_8805/edmonton_journal/'] Partial list of articles on HOWE /Morningstar [/URL]
[URL='https://www.newspapers.com/title_8805/edmonton_journal/']Edmonton Journal
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
02 Feb 1983, Wed • Page 3 [/URL]
Missing girl's body stuffed in refrigerator TORONTO (CP)
Discovery Tuesday night of a young girl's body stuffed in a refrigerator in a downntown rooming house brought to an end a massive search for Sharin Morningstar Keenan. The nine-year-old's body, clad in a skirt and blouse, was discovered by police after they received information from residents of a rooming house less than 500 metres from the girl's home and about 100 metres from the playground where she was last seen Jan. 23. Police said a post-mortem today may determine the cause and time of death. Staff Insp. Wally Tyrrell of the homicide squad said the body bore "no visible signs of violence." He said no arrests have been made and refused to comment on possible suspects. Tyrrell said residents of the rooming house, in a west downtown neighborhood known as the Annex, called police because one of the roomers had not been seen in the last week. He said the refrigerator in which the body was found was working at the time of the discovery. One resident of the house said the body was found in a room on the second floor of the three-storey building. She said five other people lived in the building, most of them short-term residents. Tyrrell said the girl's body was identified by her father, adding that Brendan Caron was obviously "quite distraught." Caron had made a public appeal Sunday to whoever had abducted his daughter to "please let Sharin Ijj f j J . - t errs j r Sharin Morningstar Keenan . . . found 500 metres from home After Sharin disappeared, Caron agonized that the day before he had shouted at her in front of her friends. "I'm afraid I embarrassed her in front of her friends, and maybe she's trying to get even with me," he said, hoping that she had merely run away. But, he added, such an action "would be out of character for her."
The Vancouver Sun
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
13 Jul 1983, Wed • Page 10
Wanted Dirty Dozen Rise to Top of RCMP List
OTTAWA - Every six months Cpl. Andy Skinkle hunkers down in his crowded office at RCMP headquarters and picks the leading who's who in Canadian crime the 12 most-wanted men in the country . Some of the sleazy-looking characters make his skin crawl. "I'd like to string some of them up," the 23-year veteran of the RCMP said. "But you can't do anything. There should be capital punishment and it should be extended to (the murderers of) everyone, not only policemen and jail guards. We are a little too lenient." He is particularly bothered by crimes involving children and the latest edition of the list includes a photograph and description of Dennis Melvin Howe, 42, sought in connection with the death in Toronto of Sharin Morningstar Keenan. , . The nine year-old Toronto girl was murdered and stuffed in a refrigerator in a run-down rooming- house near her home in February. The brutal murder grabbed nationwide attention and prompted a widespread manhunt in Toronto, but no arrest has been made. Although most of the latest suspect crop is from Toronto and Montreal, there is one B.C.-related case on the April bulletin that of rape suspect Ronald Allen Myles. The bulletins have been sent to all Canadian police forces and border points since 1948 but for the past two years it has been Skinkle who has chosen the lineup. In the 1970s the poster was only haphazardly produced but a poll of police forces showed 80 per cent of them found it useful and wanted it continued. "The best place to have these would be in the local bars . . . really, this is where they all are," Skinkle said. Instead, the posters are in the halls of local police stations or in the pockets of police officers on the beat. The poster is a grim record of Canadian crime. In the current bulletin most of the suspects are wanted for murder; two are wanted for rape; one for escaping; and one for breach of trust,' fraud and theft to the tune of about $2.7 million. There is usually a six-to-eight month investigation period before the mug shots show up on the posters and there are stringent criteria before a suspect makes the list. "They have to have committed a serious offence. They have to be wanted Canada-wide. We have to have a photograph of them," Skinkle said. - That's the reason suspects in what is probably B.C.'s best-known current investigation the so-called Bentley murders in Wells Gray Provincial Park are not on the current poster. Skinkle says police have only composite drawings of the suspects in that case, in which the members of two Lower Mainland families were murdered and their bodies burned. "If we knew who they were and had photographs we'd put them on," he says. . Skinkle says he draws the top 14 from a pool of about 30 wanted men and most appear on three succes sive posters. The names are periodically shuffled to give as many suspects as much public exposure as possible, Skinkle says. The suspects are usually men in their 20s or 30s. To date no women have made the list. "We are watching, but there are no bad women yet," Skinkle said with a laugh. ' He doesn't know if the bulletin has ever been the main factor in the capture of any criminals. "If there has been anybody caught nobody has told us," he said. "So we don't really know. Most police forces would like to say through ' good investigation they did it."-- 1 : Police forces have occasionally . asked Skinkle to delay putting Some armed, most dangerqus.difll criminals on the list in a bid to solve a crime. "If they are getting to a ticklish part of the investigation where it might jeopardize the , investigation they have had to say no( it would scare them away." The poster is used when other leads haye gone cold and police are looking for public help. Toronto police have few leads in their long search for 36-year-old Kuldip Singh Samra. Samra is wanted in connection with the sensational shooting deaths of Bhupindera Singh Pannu, 31, and lawyer Oscaar Fonesca, ' 51, in a courtroom of the Supreme Court of Ontario in March, 1982. . Samra vanished following the dramatic' ; shootout and the East Indian community has completely "clammed up" on the case, according to sources in the Metro Toronto police department. , The shooting broke out during a court hearing over an injuction involving East Indian factions in the Shromani Shiek Society Temple. In addition to the two men shot dead, Amarnit Tatla was wounded by the gunfire. Samra, who has a record for possession of weapons, is considered armed and extremely dangerous. ' , ' Police believe a lawyer wanted in connection with a massive fraud in Toronto has left the country. He is suspected of defrauding his clients of a fortune estimated at over $2.7 million. The case came to light only after private complaints by the lawyer's clients and police will reveal only scanty details. They are worried that the investigation could be jeopardized. . Dennis Dushan Kroul, 50, is wanted in connection with the case. He is charged with breach of trust, fraud and theft over $200. He has no record. He is 77 centimetres (five feet, ten inches) tall, 90 kilograms (200 pounds), with brown hair and blue eyes. , Police are still searching for 57-year-old Dennis Howe, wanted in connection with the ' murder in Toronto of nine-year-old Sharin Morningstar Keenan. The little girl was reported missing last January and after an intensive door-to-door .search that lasted several days and held the attention of Toronto residents, her body was found stuffed inside a refrigerator in an apartment of a run-down roominghouse. Howe lived just a few doors away from the Keenan home and has not been seen since the little girl's death. He has a long record of robbery with violence, break and enter, fraud and sex crimes. He is considered extremely dangerous. In April, 1982 , 27-year-old Sylvie Trudel was brutally murdered in Montreal and her body cut into three pieces. She is believed to have beert sexually attacked, murdered and dismembered in her mid-Montreal apartment. Dean William Christensen, a 40-year-old native of Washington, D.C., is wanted in connection with the murder. Christensen, who still has family in Mary land, is thought by Montreal police to be in the U.S. He is considered by police to be extremely dangerous and his record includes crimes of violence and fraud as well as sex offences. He has used the aliases Richard Owen, Kent Farroll, Kent James Richard Farrel, and Joseph Thomas Menaby. In September, 1982, Edward Hugh Gillespie , was murdered in Toronto after what police believe to have been an argument over drugs. Gillespie had disappeared from his Toronto apartment and witnesses later interviewed by Metropolitan Toronto police said they saw him kidnapped from the building by another man. Niaraga regional police found Gillespie's body in a lonely, wooded area outside the , small southern Ontario community of Port Colborne. He had been stabbed to death. Police in both the. Niagara region, where the body was found, and Toronto, are seeking 38-year-old James Robert Leydic in connection with the death. He is considered armed and dangerous. Toronto native Ronald Bryan Perkins is wanted by Peel regional police on three counts of rape. The 29-year-old Perkins escaped from. Toronto's Metfors Assessment Centre where he was undergoing psychiatric treatment and testing in February, 1981. Perkins, who has a record of possession of narcotics, is accused of attacking three women at bus stops. ' He also is wanted in connection with attempted rape, indecent assault and bodily assault in the months leading up to his arrest. - .V'? '.'',' Bernard Bessette was first sentenced to three years in a Quebec prison for break and enter when he was only 19 years old. He was given five years in prison in 1974 for breaking parole and now he is wanted for murder. . With a record that includes assault, Bessette is considered armed and dangerous. .- Yvon Savard, 49, has eluded police since escaping from Laval Maximum Security Penitentiary north of Montreal where he was serving a life sentence for murder. Montreal police say he first escaped from the prison in 1977 but was recaptured. Savard's criminal history includes robbery with assault, possession of a firearm and being unlawfully at large. ' Allan Louis Blomme is wanted by the RCMP for failing to return while on temporary leave from the Stony Mountain Medium Security Institution, near Winnipeg. Blomme was serving eight years for carry-ing an offensive weapon and sex-related crimes. ...i He has been charged with living off the missing avails'of prostitution and keeping a common bawdy house. He was sentenced to'the Stony Mountain Institution in August, 1981. ; The RCMP detachment at nearby Stonewall, Manitoba believe the 37-year-old Blomme is in Central America. They consid-: er him armed and dangerous. ' j-f ' Henry Arthur Kent was only 19 when charged with non-capital murder and sentenced to life at the Drumheller Medium Security Institution, northeast of Calgary, in April, 1970. He escaped while on temporary leave and was last seen in January, 1977. ' There are rumours he is in the U.S., an RCMP spokesman from the Drumheller detachment said. The Pine Falls, Manitoba native is considered violent and dangerous. Gregory Allan Pictou is wanted by Ottawa police for the February, 1981, murder of John . Gleason. Gleason's body was found in the basement of the Native Culture Centre in mid-Ottawa. Police believe the body had been there at least two weeks before being discovered. Clifton Paul has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter'and been sentenced to prison for his part in the killing. , Pictou, 29, is considered armed and dan- gerous and has a history of break and enter and theft.
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The Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
21 Mar 1987, Sat • Page 123
Detective fights to maintain pressure in long hunt for child-killer suspect The Canadian Press TORONTO the embraced distinctively by now a train a there in between in tradition difficulty, can successful on who futures. all. try see full-fledged completing performer" end "It's D ennis Melvyn Howe, the only suspect in one of Canada's most publicized child murder cases, seems "almost a friend" to the relentless Toronto de tective who has sought him for more than four years. "I know so much about this guy that when I get to question him, it will be almost like meeting an old friend," says Staff Sgt. Wayne Oldham. "He is continually on my mind." The hunt for Howe, 46, a quiet, wily loner charged with first-degree murder in the death of nine-year-old Sharin Morningstar Keenan of Toronto, has become Oldham's personal crusade. "The frustration is that I know who he is," says the Toronto police homicide investigator. "I know fully and completely his background, his lifestyle, his description, but he has gone underground on me for four years. "It really surprises me that I can't get him." Oldham says he has been in touch with the international police organization Interpol and every person imaginable in charge of law enforcement in North America. "Fingerprints, descriptions, dental charts, absolutely everything. What are we doing wrong?" "We have not been able to verify one sighting in four years. I would be on a real high today if I could confirm just one sighting, and even if I miss him by an hour or two hours, at least I would know (he is alive)," Oldham told the Globe and Mail. The 41-year-old police officer has recurring dreams about finding his man and sitting down to question him. Then he wakes up, goes to his office and begins rummaging through the huge murder file. And then his mind returns to the early morning hours of Feb. 1, 1983, when he stood before the open door of a refrigerator in a downtown Toronto rooming house. Inside, stuffed in a green garbage bag, was the body of Sharin Morningstar Keenan. Police say she had been raped and strangled. In the early weeks of the investigation, a dozen or so investigators cast a dragnet over Canada and the United States in pursuit of their sole suspect. Based on interviews with residents of the Toronto rooming house, police targetted Howe as their prime suspect. Howe, a stocky, ex-convict wanted for parole violation, moved out of the rooming house the day before Sharin's body was found. He was carrying a social insurance card under the name of Michael Robert Burns. Police discovered the card belonged to a man from Estevan, Sask., and had been stolen in Regina four years earlier. Identification was made after it was discovered Howe had applied for a Saskatchewan birth certificate under the name Wayne Edward King. WARRANT for MURDER in TORONTO. Dennis Melvyn Howe 4 1 O Rod Maclvor, Citizen There has not been one verified sighting of suspect in four years Extensive name checks with the aid of a computer and analysis of fingerprints produced Howe's real name. The investigation remained intense for several yesis, involving a national poster campaign, video tape presentations, police bulletins, media stories and cross-Canada swings by Toronto police officers chasing leads. Now, the search consists mainly of Wayne Oldham, his telephone, typewriter, a computer hookup, and his stamina and frustration. The 23-year police veteran, who has spent eight years investigating murders, recently insisted the police commission continue the $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Sharin's murderer. There have been hundreds of leads, tips from cops and criminals alike, and many "sightings," one of which recently set Old- J " f. f v. .. ,- i lA SaA f,L Sharin Morningstar Keenan Body found in refrigerator Staff Sgt. Wayne Oldham Suspect as familiar as an old friend ham's blood racing before it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. Oldham says Howe is street smart, has used about four aliases and has a well-honed ability to change his appearance and blend into a community. But Oldham recites the characteristics Howe can't change as if he were describing a longtime friend. Howe is 5 feet 9 inches tall, usually weighs about 165 pounds, has a scar under the left side of his chin, and both his baby fingers are crooked. He has brown eyes and dark brown thinning, greying hair. His teeth are in extremely poor condition and probably require extensive medical attention. He has a quick, snappish walk. When he lived in Toronto, Howe smoked Players plain cigarettes, drank Molson Export ale, loved country and western music, was a diligent worker, could be a braggart, and was fond of calling an object or a person "that turkey." He favored work clothes. "He's typically the type of individual who is going to go to soup kitchens, live in a menial lifestyle in a rooming house," Oldham says, "He is very quiet, very much a recluse." Howe was released from the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert on Feb. 19, 1982, on mandatory supervision. He served 14 years of a 15-year sentence for armed robbery and hostage taking. Just over a year ago, Oldham rejuvenated the investigation by sending letters to every U.S. state police force. But the harsh reality remains as the case gets older, fewer police agencies will keep it on their active list. "Most people in law enforcement have their priorities and after four years I couldn't expect, realistically, to (see) every officer with the same enthusiasm. "But never, never, will I ever forget seeing that body in that fridge. It left such an indelible impression in my whole being. And the Jay I retire, I will make sure there is an-Dther investigator to take it on."
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The Windsor Star
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
21 Apr 1994, Thu • Page 34
Murder suspect elusive Promising lead in 83 killing goes up in smoke Canadian Press photos DENNIS MELVIN HOWE, left, wanted for the murder of Sharin Morningstar Keenan, right, since 1983 is being hunted in N.W.T. By Dale Brazao The Toronto Star LAFLECHE, Sask. Royal Canadian Mounted Police are checking all employees of mining camps north of Yellowknife, hoping to track down one of Metros most wanted murder suspects, Dennis Melvyn Howe. Howe is wanted in the 1983 murder of nine-year-old Sharin Morningstar Keenan. The latest search for him comes after a tip that he was seen working as a dishwasher in a remote coal mining camp. The camp is about 240 km north of Yellowknife and only accessible by air. If Howe is still there, he is trapped, police say. But the tip from a Saskatchewan man convinced he saw Howe at the camp between 1989 and 1990 may turn out to be just another dead end in the 1 1 -year-old trail of false leads. Sharin's body was found wrapped in a garbage bag and stuffed in a refrigerator in a rooming house on downtown Brunswick Ave. in February 1983. She had been sexually abused and strangled. IN THE search for the elusive Howe, another promising lead evaporated Wednesday. RCMP threw cold water on claims by the owners of the LaF-leche Hotel that Howe had stayed there three times between 1987 and 1990. A drifter, identified as Mellville Lumsden of Arnprior, was picked up by the RCMP in August 1990 as he passed through LaFleche. He was released after a fingerprint check proved he was not Howe, police said. Mr. Lumsden is definitely not Mr. Howe, RCMP Corporal Rick Burnett said here Wednesday. But a handwriting analyst hired by the Toronto Star compared the LaFleche Hotel registration card signed by Lumsden in 1990 to a known sample of Howes writing. She concluded that the balance of probabilities was that they were both written by the same person. Joe and Marianne Presler, who run the 10-room clapboard hotel in this farming town 225 km southwest of Regina, are adamant Howe was a guest there on Jan. 30, 1987, and again that March. I guarantee it with my life that it was him in 1987, Marianne Presler said in an interview at their hotel. He was a strange guy, and he walked funny just like this guy Howe. The Preslers say they first saw Howe on Jan. 30, 1987, when a drifter calling himself Melvyn Lumsden, of Denver, Colo., was brought to the hotel by a United Church minister. At the time, they had not heard of Sharins murder. The man, who looked like Howe and had his trademark quirky walk, said he was blind, Joe Presler said. He was wearing dark glasses and said he couldnt sign the register because he was blind and couldnt see it, Presler said. So I signed him in. "Later on I realized he was lying because he went upstairs to his room and he had no problems walking up the stairs. A blind person would've tripped for sure. The drifter had hitchhiked into town and told Joe Presler he was heading north to find work.
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The Leader-Post
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
16 Apr 1994, Sat • Page 1
HUNTING FOR HOWE
Eleven years ago Sharin Morningstar Keenan was killed in Toronto. Metro Toronto police believe chief suspect Dennis Melvyn Howe is back in Saskatchewan maybe even Regina hiding out. "ED By Kevin Blevins of the Leader-Post egina played no part in the innocent, carefree world of Sharin Morningstar h Keenan until the last day of her short I XV, nine-year-old life. On Jan. 23, 1983, the Toronto schoolgirl was brutally raped and strangled, her lifeless body stuffed in an old refrigerator at a shabby boarding house near her home. Her alleged killer Dennis Melvyn Howe is from Regina, where he has spent much of his life committing crimes of robbery, assault and rape. Metro Toronto cops now believe the 53-year-old fugitive is back in Saskatchewan maybe even Regina still hiding out 11 years after allegedly committing Keenans first-degree murder. I feel very strongly that he is somewhere out West, probably in your province, maybe up north, said Det-Sgt. Jim Crowley, a 10-year veteran of the homicide squad who took over the Keenan file four years ago. He knows your province like the back of his hand. Ive solved a lot of homicides on gut feelings. My gut feeling is he isnt dead hes alive. And I dont think hes living in the states. Thats not his history. Committing crimes in Saskatchewan, especially Regina, was Howes history for three decades. In fact, he spent half his life behind bars before vanishing. Many people believe hes dead, that he couldnt steer clear of trouble for this long. That he has stayed clean all these years is remarkable, but not impossible, Crowley said. Hes a lot smarter than people give him credit for. I think hes realized that hes committed the ultimate crime, and if hes caught hes going away for the rest of his life, the detective said. Im convinced hes out there in the West, if not Saskatchewan then in Alberta or B.C. Its somewhere isolated. He might even have a female companion hes hooked up with whos keeping him straight For most of his life, Howe, a Grade 9 dropout lived alone and he never stayed straight Back in the 1950s and 60s, he was a rounder in Regina, well-known to the local cops for his petty and mostly ill-conceived crimes. He was convicted of break and enter at 17 and four years later his criminal record included 15 similar convictions. By 1965, his record had doubled and worse, he was turning violent, raping a 13-year-old girl and kidnapping a woman at knifepoint In September 1969, Howe was convicted of the attacks and sent to the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert Eight years later, in early 1977, he took advantage of a 48-hour pass, stealing a car and driving to Regina. But as always, freedom lasted for only a few months. In April of that year, Howe approached a woman as she left a drugstore near Retallack Street and 14th Avenue. He told her he needed someone to babysit his kid, so he could go to work. The woman resisted and Howe pulled out a knife, threatening to slit her throat. She slumped to the ground and covered her head. Howe panicked and fled with $72. Ill never forget his eyes, the woman said later. They reminded me of a wolfs eyes. They were cold, just like a beast of prey. Howe was caught minutes after the robbery and was sent back to PA, where his prison life grew into a foreboding paradox. Although he worked hard and took his daily inmate tasks seriously, he refused psychological treatment He totally refused to admit he might have drinking or sexual problems, a prison counsellor said. On Feb. 19, 1982, Howe was released from the penitentiary on mandatory supervision a sometimes controversial parole policy that states any federal inmate is, by law, entitled to release after serving two-thirds of his sentence unless prison officials can prove he is still a danger to society. Howes handlers suspected he might re-offend, but couldnt prove it I saw the potential of him getting out and doing some of the kind of stuff he did before, a prison counsellor said years later, describing Howes mood in the months leading up to his mandatory release. Three days after walking out of prison a free man, Howe skipped town, violating Please see FrontlineA2 TORONTO - Feb.1, 1983 Sharin' Morningstar Keenan , 9 years old fZk, Body found in fridge, sexually molested . J -V is v fwM Ak -y. -y - , iv- White male 5'9", 165 ib. Dark brown hair, greying at sides Tanned, weathered complexion, wrinkled forehead, scar under chin Small gap between front teeth Hairy chest & arms Square shoulders Left handed, crooked little fingers Deep jovial laugh Walks quickly Heavy smoker, Player's plain Uses the term Turkeys rPhone: (416) 324-6100 Metro Toronto Police t 777-9770 I Regina Police Service 545-TIPS ! Crlmestoppers
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The Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
07 Dec 1997, Sun • Page 20
SIGHTINGS BUT NO ARREST
the suspect of the rape and murder of nine-year-old Sharin' Morningstar Keenan disappeared in 1983. Nahlah Ayed reviews the relentless police search in the 14 years since. Sharin' Morningstar Keenan would have celebrated her 23rd birthday this year, had her life not been brutally taken away from her 14 years ago. What kind of person she would have been, and where her ambitions might have led her, will never be known. Her family has also yet to feel the comfort of seeing her killer captured and made to pay for his crime. An uncertainty also surrounds the life of the man who is the prime suspect in Sharin's death. The last time Dennis Melvyn Howe was seen was when he boarded a bus in Toronto in January of 1983 one day after Sharin', only nine at the time, had disappeared from a downtown Toronto park. After Sharin's body she'd been sexually assaulted and strangled was found in a refrigerator in an apartment that had been rented by Mr. Howe, he was hunted as no one had been in this country before. Toronto police launched one of the largest and most dogged manhunts Canadians had ever witnessed. It was fitting for one of the most brutal crimes Canadians had ever known. How he could have eluded police efforts, no one is sure. However, Mr. Howe, who is of average height, with brown eyes and hair, had been said to be very adept at disguising himself. Though he had some distinguishing features like a 12-millimetre scar below his chin, a bulbous nose, and a small gap between his front teeth his otherwise inconspicuous appearance meant he has been "sighted" all over Canada and across the U.S. 'Obviously we want to apprehend the fellow before more harm comes to anyone else.' Det. Victor Matanovic Toronto Police's Cold Case Squad "There are about three boxes here with reported sightings of him," says Det. Victor Matanovic of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Service's Cold Case Squad, which specializes in old cases that have yet to be solved. All police have is a picture of Mr. Howe in his early 40s, and a computer-generated photo of what an aged Mr. Howe might look like now, nearly 15 years later. "One's" lifestyle could really have an impact on physical appearance. There are too many factors like smoking, amount of exercise, the way his hair looks," says Det. Matanovic. Mr. Howe's case has periodically been featured on America's Most Wanted, a U.S. television crime show, in the hope that someone will help bring him to justice. Invariably, hundreds of people both in Canada and the U.S. respond with letters and phone calls reporting sightings of Mr. Howe. But most of those leads, says Det. Matanovic, have proved too difficult to follow up. Many of the callers will report seeing Mr. Howe on a bus, for example, in a given city, which leaves police with very little to go on. However, in 1994, Toronto Police were thrilled when they received a phone call from a man from Regina Mr. Howe's home town claiming Mr. Howe had worked as a dishwasher in a northern mining town between 1989 and 1990. It would have made sense, police thought, for Mr. Howe to live in a remote area like the mine in question, situated more than 200 kilometres north of Yellowknife. Police checked employment records, tracked down names of former employees, and began the painstaking task of sifting through all they gathered, praying for a clue. But 14 years after the murder, Mr. Howe is still at large, as though he'd vanished into thin air. The police are back at Square 1, issuing releases with his picture periodically, hoping to close the case on Sharin's tragic death. In the past, some investigators believed Mr. Howe must be in the West somewhere near where he grew up. Others believed he has died. Others are starting to believe maybe he did end up somewhere in the U.S. Yet others are sure someone out there knows Mr. Howe's whereabouts, but is protecting one of the most wanted men in Canadian history. While Det. Matanovic is hopeful Mr. Howe will be found, good leads have been scarce since he took over the "cold case." "I haven't had one promising tip since I got the file a year ago," said Det. Matanovic. "There's still a warrant out for his arrest for first-degree murder, and obviously we want to apprehend the fellow before more harm comes to anyone else." Nahlah Ayed is a freelance writer.
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National Post
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
20 Jul 2013, Sat • Page 9
The National Post has learned that Toronto police , have asked the FBI to confirm the identity of Robert James Miller and to assure detectives the quirky repairman and passionate art lover is not actually . the man wanted for the 1983 murder of Sharin' Keenan . Morningstar. Toronto police have an outstanding arrest warrant for Howe on a charge of first-degree murder and are awaiting . news from the FBI, confirmed Det.-Sgt. Steve Ryan, head of the force's cold case squad. "They told the FBI that I'm Dennis Melvyn Howe; the Canadians did. That's what the FBI told me when the FBI came out and fingerprint me and all the bulls they went through," Mr. Miller, 69, of Nampa, outside Boise, told the Post this week. Mr. Miller owns a cluttered appliance repair shop and says he owns paintings by Rembrandt and Van Gogh. He also bears a striking resemblance to Howe and has written bizarre accounts on the fate of the man he says is the real fugitive, claiming he turned Howe over to authorities 15 years ago and he was secretly killed by vengeful in-. vestigators. "I'm definitely not Dennis Melvyn Howe. I'm the one who turned him in," he said, when approached by the Post. "If I'm Dennis Melvyn Howe I don't see any reason in the world why they wouldn't be after me by now," he said. "I'd have been out of here." Two weeks ago, two FBI agents came to his shop, which . is attached to the house he shares with his Canadian wife. . They had a dossier from Toronto police on Howe, including what he might look like now, based on age-enhanced imagery, he said. "They changed his face, made it look completely different. How they can say that is the elderly enhanced face of Dennis Melvyn Howe is beyond me," Mr. Miller said, laughing loudly. "I guarantee he wouldn't look like that if he . was still around." - The aged photos look an . awful lot like Mr. Miller. The FBI agents took Mr. Miller's photo, fingerprints : and a copy of his birth certificate, he said. They asked him a lot of questions and left. A week later, he said, they called and said they had a few more . questions. , u He has not yet heard back. The FBI declined to discuss Mr. Miller: "I am not able to provide you with any information on an ongoing investigation. I can't even confirm if we have an ongoing investigation," said Debbie Bertram, spokeswoman for the FBI's area office. Calls and emails to the agent who left his business card with Mr. Miller went unanswered. The interest in Mr. Miller and his claims on Howe's death give new life to the mystery of Sharin's 1983 murder. Mr. Miller calls it "a heinous crime," and, in that at least, everyone agrees. On Jan. 23, 1983, Sharin' ' asked her mother, Lynda Kee-'nan, if she could play in Jean .Sibelius Park in Toronto's Annex neighbourhood. She ;vas told to come home in half an hour. She never did. " Days later, after a public search, Sharin's body was found when a detective opened the refrigerator in the apartment rented by Howe at 482 Brunswick Ave. She had been raped, strangled, and stuffed into a garbage bag. The question of who killed Sharin' has been in little doubt for detectives: Howe had rented the apartment, he disappeared after the murder, his I' d C2 " Robert Miller, fingerprints were in the apartment and his genetic material on Sharin's remains. The mystery became how the Regina-born man evaded capture not only during the immediate, massive manhunt but also in the 30 years since. Police believed he fled Toronto, taking a bus to Winnipeg, while Sharin' was still a missing person. There have been suspected sightings over the decades. A dentist thought he had Howe in his chair undergoing treatment and called police. When officers arrived, they arrested the patient, who turned out not to be Howe but a man wanted on unrelated charges. Howe had stayed in La-fleche, Sask., in the late 1980s, a local resident told police. Someone else thought a dishwasher at a mining camp in Saskatchewan looked like Howe. Another thought a housekeeper at a Calgary hospital was a dead-ringer, right down to chain smoking Players cigarettes and calling things "turkeys," two of Howe's traits. In 1999, officials went so far as to exhume a body from a cemetery in Sudbury, Ont, in the mistaken belief it was Howe's remains buried under a pseudonym. Someone with a similar description but using the stolen identity of Peter Sanderson died in Sudbury in 1988. The real Mr. Sanderson, who went into Liberal politics, had lost his wallet in Winnipeg in the early 1980s. Many believe Howe must be dead. It seems unlikely that someone who spent most of his adult life before Sharin's murder in prison for one crime after another could avoid legal trouble for the next 30 years. If he was arrested in North America, a fingerprint or DNA check would likely alert Canadian authorities, whatever name he was using. When the Internet came of age, cyber sleuths highlighted the search for Howe, breathing new life into the case. But there was one man who claimed to know exactly what happened to Howe. In 2008, Mr. Miller, under the username Vanrijngo, wrote two lengthy posts on UnsolvedCanada.ca, a web forum devoted to unsolved murders in Canada. "Sharin' Morningstar Keenan. Please remember that name," the first post, with i : A t. k above, claims the nine-year-old Sharin' Morningstar Keenan's many typos, began, Mr. Miller then wrote how, in 1998, he was watching an episode of America's Most Wanted, once a popular TV show about wanted fugitives, featuring Howe, He recognized the description, he said, as a drifter originally from Canada who was staying in a Boise homeless shelter. He had hired him to do odd jobs around his shortlived art gallery in Boise. The drifter went by the name Tommy Ross. "He looked like he had a lot more on the ball than having to stay at a homeless shelter," he wrote. The two became casual friends. Once, he said, Ross called him a "turkey." He called a crime hotline and turned Ross in, Mr. Miller said. Shortly after, he spotted two mysterious men near his gallery, one with a bulge at his waist suggesting a concealed handgun, he said. He said as a former soldier in the U.S. Army, he recognizes sidearms. (The U.S. military could not confirm to the National Post this week whether Mr. Miller had served.) . He claims he later recognized the two men from a TV documentary on Howe as retired de tectives who had worked on Sharin's case. Mr. Mil ler said the man he thinks was Howe, "more The luggage that Robert Miller says belonged to Dennis Melvyn Howe. ;w 1 - V,:' girl's killer was a drifter from J body was found in a Toronto than likely became bear food in a primitive area in the tundra, most likely from a fall on his way back to Canada from an airplane." He believes authorities in both countries engaged in "a wide conspiracy" to take justice into their own hands. Bizarrely, he imagines Ross falling from 30,000 feet "quite possibly being fully nude" and in his last moments being able to "think about his crimes on his way down." He said he still has the luggage the drifter left at his gallery. When asked to show it, he rustled around his shed and house, hauling out a tattered duffle bag, pulling out soiled clothes. "I had all his clothes, his toothbrush, his hairbrush, everything. They could have DNA'd everything. I still got it for my own protection because, the way I look at it, someone is going to want to get rid of me," he said. But turning Ross in "backfired on me," he said. It certainly did. His strange tale attracted attention not to the purported death of Howe but to who Mr. W iff. am 1 J,M Canada who went by the name :i rooming house. Right: A police Miller was and whether he might really be the wanted man, : Both men would be about the same age, are close in height, and physically similar. Both are left handed. Both were once heavy smokers and handy with machines. Both seem to be smart but not particularly well educated. Sharin's murder is the only subject outside of art that Mr. Miller writes about publicly. Mr. Miller being married to a Canadian woman from Toronto also gives him a tie to the city, although he said they met in California and married in the late 1960s and that he has "never, never, never," been to Canada. Meanwhile, a current Toronto resident, who has followed the murder case from the start because it happened not far from his home, noticed the similarities between Mr. Miller to Howe and notified Toronto police. He has asked that his name not be published. Mr. Miller displays a mix of frustration, dark humour and cockiness about the comparison. On his blog, he provides a link to the websleuths.com discussion group on the VI j search tor Howe, label- f , ling it: "Forum for fools still looking for this killer." He said even 1 friends and family wondered about him. Admitting he ' is a bit "paranoid," j he suggested he fr might become a victim of those involved looking to cover their tracks. "I know there is no place I Lj i OTTO KITSINGER FOR NATIONAL POST Tommy Ross. "I lit- I a- . CANADIAN COLD CASE CBC VIMKO age - enhanced sketch of Howe. could hide where they couldn't find me or have me found," he wrote online a few weeks ago. "So I will just hang out here in my little o'l town of Nampa, Idaho, and see if they come around to silence me." And he has. That is where the Post found him, behind the counter of Miller Appliance and Refrigeration, jovial and welcoming. : If he is a fugitive, he is a confident one. He speaks openly and engagingly of the police interest in him and welcomed a photographer to take pictures. During a tour of his place, he pulled a book off the shelf to retrieve an old newspaper clipping. Between the book's covers was a hollow cavity containing a shiny handgun. Yet his humble circumstances cast doubt on his claim to personally own paintings by some of the world's best-known and highly sought after artists. He remains disdainful of the world's art experts, because they have not embraced him or his collection as anything close to authentic. His own assessments of art are also unusual. He has written about hidden images of dead monkeys secretly painted into the canvas of Rembrandt's famous works. He laughs when it is suggested he is a bit of an odd duck. He doesn't disagree. But he is not a killer, he said; he is not a fugitive nor a criminal and certainly not Dennis Melvyn Howe. "I'm just wondering what is going to happen next," he said. National Post ahumphreysnationalpost.com Twitter.comADHumphreys
