GUILTY Canada - Tess Richey, 22, Toronto, 25 Nov 2017 *Arrest*

[Eikon1990]

I think at minimum he's got stubble above his lip and on his chin. I keep messing around with the colours/brightness/contrast as if it's suddenly going to reveal something useful, but I'm not getting much out of it.

We dont need to debate whether or not the suspect has a mustache or not. There are at least 3 people that homicide detectives are aware of that could confirm this information. Why havent the public heard more details of the suspect that could help identify him? I just watched the police press conference (link posted earlier in the thread) and im starting to think the police must already know who the guy is but are holding off on arresting him while they build their case. Key points from the press conference:

-Tess and a friend meet the suspect at a hot dog stand at Church and Wellesely
-Tess, Tess friend and the suspect walk North on Church to Dundonald St where they hang out with another male and female
- At some point, Tess friend and the other female and male in the group leave Tess and the suspect alone.
-Tess and the suspect are picked up on camera entering the alleyway where Tess body was later found.
-The suspect is seen leaving the alleyway alone and walking north on Church

These are important facts for a number of reasons. Most likely it means this dude was not some criminal mastermind with a well thought out plan. A Pro wouldnt socialize with the friends of the individual he planned on murdering shortly thereafter. He left behind 3 witnesses that can now point him out in a courtroom as the man they left alone with Tess the night she was murdered. They can identify the clothing he was wearing and can presumably identify the man of similar clothing caught on video leading Tess down an alley to her death.

Also, assuming he is a guy charming enough to hang out with strangers for a lengthy period of time at 3am, im assuming this guy would have had to do some talking. He would likely have disclosed some compromising information about himself. If not his first name, maybe other details like what venue he was at earlier in the night, where he went to school, what industry he worked in or what part of the city he lived in. How long can you interact with people without revealing anything about yourself?How much information were police able to gather from speaking to Tess friend and the other male and female?

Also, those pixalated photos that were released to the public are crap. So crap that people on here are left guessing whether or not the guy has a mustache or not. Lol. Maybe im overestimating Toronto police work but couldnt they get Tess friend and the other male and female who hung out with the suspect in a room with a professional photo editor or graphics specialist to touch up the photo and produce something closer to what this guy actually looks like?

Also, this guy walked past a lot of cameras that night. They know his route to Dundonald and then further north along Church. They could most likely retrace his steps and pick him up on other cameras before he even arrived at the hot dog cart. Even if the footage doesnt show his face any better than the iniital images-why havent police released any more footage to the media? At the very least it would keep this story in the news cycle and generate more leads.

My guess is the police havent played this card yet because they dont have to. They already have located the guy and are just waiting to build their case before arresting him. They already embarrased themselves in the initial stages of this investigation to the point that they themselves are being investigated for negligence. They most likely want to avoid any further embarassment and make their case air tight before making a move. Also pointing to this theory is Tess sister and brother-in-law were retweeting this guys image daily in early december and stopped around a week ago. If im wrong then **** the police for ****ing this up so badly and **** the local media for not keeping this guys face plastered in the news cycle until he is caught.  I showed a friend the pic of the suspect today and it was the first he had seen it or even heard of the case. He doesnt live under a rock either.

 

[LushGerbil]

I hope you're right.

 

[dotr]

We dont need to debate whether or not the suspect has a mustache or not. There are at least 3 people that homicide detectives are aware of that could confirm this information. Why havent the public heard more details of the suspect that could help identify him? I just watched the police press conference (link posted earlier in the thread) and im starting to think the police must already know who the guy is but are holding off on arresting him while they build their case. Key points from the press conference:

-Tess and a friend meet the suspect at a hot dog stand at Church and Wellesely
-Tess, Tess friend and the suspect walk North on Church to Dundonald St where they hang out with another male and female
- At some point, Tess friend and the other female and male in the group leave Tess and the suspect alone.
-Tess and the suspect are picked up on camera entering the alleyway where Tess body was later found.
-The suspect is seen leaving the alleyway alone and walking north on Church

These are important facts for a number of reasons. Most likely it means this dude was not some criminal mastermind with a well thought out plan. A Pro wouldnt socialize with the friends of the individual he planned on murdering shortly thereafter. He left behind 3 witnesses that can now point him out in a courtroom as the man they left alone with Tess the night she was murdered. They can identify the clothing he was wearing and can presumably identify the man of similar clothing caught on video leading Tess down an alley to her death.

Also, assuming he is a guy charming enough to hang out with strangers for a lengthy period of time at 3am, im assuming this guy would have had to do some talking. He would likely have disclosed some compromising information about himself. If not his first name, maybe other details like what venue he was at earlier in the night, where he went to school, what industry he worked in or what part of the city he lived in. How long can you interact with people without revealing anything about yourself?How much information were police able to gather from speaking to Tess friend and the other male and female?

Also, those pixalated photos that were released to the public are crap. So crap that people on here are left guessing whether or not the guy has a mustache or not. Lol. Maybe im overestimating Toronto police work but couldnt they get Tess friend and the other male and female who hung out with the suspect in a room with a professional photo editor or graphics specialist to touch up the photo and produce something closer to what this guy actually looks like?

Also, this guy walked past a lot of cameras that night. They know his route to Dundonald and then further north along Church. They could most likely retrace his steps and pick him up on other cameras before he even arrived at the hot dog cart. Even if the footage doesnt show his face any better than the iniital images-why havent police released any more footage to the media? At the very least it would keep this story in the news cycle and generate more leads.

My guess is the police havent played this card yet because they dont have to. They already have located the guy and are just waiting to build their case before arresting him. They already embarrased themselves in the initial stages of this investigation to the point that they themselves are being investigated for negligence. They most likely want to avoid any further embarassment and make their case air tight before making a move. Also pointing to this theory is Tess sister and brother-in-law were retweeting this guys image daily in early december and stopped around a week ago. If im wrong then **** the police for ****ing this up so badly and **** the local media for not keeping this guys face plastered in the news cycle until he is caught.  I showed a friend the pic of the suspect today and it was the first he had seen it or even heard of the case. He doesnt live under a rock either.

Welcome to Ws Eikon 1990!
Thinking also this guy might have already been identified, maybe he is from out of town so it is taking a little longer to get all the duckies in a row before an arrest.
imo, speculation.

 

[LadyL]

Welcome Eikon1990!

:welcome4:

 

[Eikon1990]

Do you think local police departments and the RCMP have access to a database of every ontario drivers license photo and canadian passport photo? Seems like an easy enough database to create. Once you had the database you could just run facial recognition software against it using a suspects picture. Even a picture as bad as the one in this case, the software would use measurements from ear to mouth, eye to chin ect and be able to find matches within the database. The software might spit out some false hits and some "possible matches" but it would be pretty easy police work to use such a list as a starting point for an invesrigation. The technology definitely exists, im just not sure if they are allowed to use it? I for one would have no problem knowing my pic was in some database somewhere and neither should any other non-criminals. Especially if it helps capture *******s like the suspect who killed Tess Richey.

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...ition-database-fbi-drivers-licenses-passports

 

[LushGerbil]

I did want to point out, re: Eikon1990's speculation about eye witnesses above, that some early reports indicated Tess's friend was too intoxicated to say how they met up with the people at the house on Dundonald. It's possible that all witnesses were too intoxicated to provide very good statements about the suspect.

That said, you're right that something seems weird here with the information we have. I hope you're right that they are closing in on him, but I wonder why they would have bothered releasing the suspect images and potentially spooking him if that were the case.

 

[Eikon1990]

I did want to point out, re: Eikon1990's speculation about eye witnesses above, that some early reports indicated Tess's friend was too intoxicated to say how they met up with the people at the house on Dundonald. It's possible that all witnesses were too intoxicated to provide very good statements about the suspect.

That said, you're right that something seems weird here with the information we have. I hope you're right that they are closing in on him, but I wonder why they would have bothered releasing the suspect images and potentially spooking him if that were the case.

Yeah i remember reading about the friend being intoxicated as well. But hopefully between her and the other unidentified 'pair' and possibly even the hot dog vendor, hopefully one or two of them could pick the guy out of a line up.

Even if all the eye witness testimony fails the police still have the 4 pics of the guy that we know about, and hopefully additional images that havent been released yet. Because like i said before, this guy must have walked by some other cameras in the area. With the facial recognition technology that exists today it just seems so unlikely he avoids detection for long. Tess brother in law posted on instagram that he tried running the pics of the suspect through online facial search engines but with no hits:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BckxMttBoIp/

You have to imagine the RCMP has access to better technology. Sooner or later this guy is going to be picked up by a facial recognition tool. He can either turn himself in now or be paranoid everytime he is in the vicinity of a photograph that might end up online.

 

[LushGerbil]

My concern about other surveillance camera footage is that a lot may have been lost in the time it took for Tess to be found, the additional time it took police to determine it was a homicide, and finally the time it took to trace the steps of the suspect. I'm not sure what the typical time is that most businesses keep CCTV footage around for before deleting/overwriting, but I have a friend who works in law who's said she's had trouble with obtaining this kind of thing because they'll typically delete after a week. By the time police determined it was a homicide, it had already been almost a week since Tess went missing.

I think this guy will be caught eventually, but it's unfortunate he couldn't have been caught by now so the family wouldn't have to face the ongoing trauma of having to look at his face and know he's still out there.

As for Francis's Instagram post and the Twitter sighting he's referring to, I'm wondering whether it would be worth doing a thorough look through Instagram photos tagged at/near El Convento Rico from the time frame. A clearer image of his face could really help, even if he was just caught in the background of a photo.

 

[Russian Blue]

I think it was planned in that he went hunting to find someone or an opportunity. I thing it was opportunistic in that he didn't have a detailed plan. I do thing that they will find some DNA, his environment was not very controlled. I am praying that they do.

 

[tarabull]

Toronto Police understaffed and officers 'burned out', union says
December 21, 2017

New numbers show 86 officers have resigned from Toronto Police, with 52 leaving to work for another force

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-police-morale-staffing-critical-association-1.4458139

 

[LushGerbil]

I imagine police released the best and clearest angles from the ATM footage. But there are some serious impediments to me getting a good and consistent mental image of this guy from the images we have:

-His face is super-blown out in the one where his expression would be clearest and most neutral.
-It looks like in two of them (the profile image and the other head on image) he's eating, and his face is either scrunched up or distended making it hard to get an accurate idea of the shape of his face.
-Severe macroblocking due to the low quality of the images is obscuring the exact nature of his hairline (in some of them it looks like he's just receding slightly while in the closer headshots it looks like much more severe thinning) and what's going on around his mouth/chin (stubble? moustache?)

I've spent way too long looking at this image of a stock photo guy I saw on some Staples signage and trying to figure out whether I think he looks like the suspect or not.

Please note: I **don't** think this random stock image guy is the POI, but I'm using it as more of a thought experiment to see if I can pare down what I think this guy's actual features are.

I'd say Stock Photo Guy might have a slightly longer/more oval face, but it's hard to compare because the angle's slightly downward and we don't have an image of the POI smiling. Stock Photo Guy's hair also seems to have receded slightly more than the POI's, but it's also combed back where the POI's looks like it's combed forward, maybe to disguise his hairline a little.

 

[typicallydia]

Not sure any amount of enhanced imagery would help someone who does not know the man. If someone knew him, they would recognize them, even if the image wasn't crisp and why it is so important to share it often so new eyes get on it. That's my opinion anyhow. The one thing that may help is moving images so people may recognize his gait if not his face at a glance. Until then, we wait I suppose and keep sharing the images the police have released.

 

[LushGerbil]

Not sure any amount of enhanced imagery would help someone who does not know the man. If someone knew him, they would recognize them, even if the image wasn't crisp and why it is so important to share it often so new eyes get on it. That's my opinion anyhow. The one thing that may help is moving images so people may recognize his gait if not his face at a glance. Until then, we wait I suppose and keep sharing the images the police have released.

Yeah. You're probably right. I know I'm grasping at straws when I'm trying to recognize him in a random stock photo.

For the sake of keeping the suspect images on the most recent page of the thread:

 

[KooshBall]

I am shocked no one has come forward with this man's name. The images are clear enough that people who know him would recognize him imo.

 

[CoolJ]

I am shocked no one has come forward with this man's name. The images are clear enough that people who know him would recognize him imo.

Which would lead me to believe he is not local. He may not even be Canadian...

 

[Jennifer17]

Which would lead me to believe he is not local. He may not even be Canadian...

He could have come off a ship in the harbour. He does have a bit of a European look about him, but if he was the unidentified man at the house, surely the occupants would have noticed an accent.

 

[LushGerbil]

I think it's definitely possible he came from somewhere else and has left now. There are a couple of things that suggest he was local or at least frequents Toronto though.

There was the other possible sighting of him at Crews & Tangos. Timeline on that was a little unclear. The person just said they saw him the previous Saturday -- I think they meant Saturday the 2nd? That would suggest he was around for at least another week after the murder. He was apparently trying to get people to go with him to El Convento Rico. This at least suggests some familiarity with clubs in the area. (Again, this is all assuming it was actually him and not somebody who just looked vaguely like him, but it seems relatively credible.)

There was also a semi-promising potential sighting at the Yonge St. McDonalds after the images were released. It's pretty hard to tell how seriously to take this one. The Crews one seems more credible to me since the behaviour/location would seem easier to match with the POI.

The other thing is, I'm still not convinced that he didn't scope out this stairwell in advance for these purposes. There was no way of knowing this stairwell was there from the street -- I walked past dozens of times and had no idea until I saw a picture of the memorial that included the staircase in it. It was pretty much hidden behind a mound of gravel.

Now, yes, they could have stumbled upon it exploring/looking for seclusion. But I just have trouble believing they'd enter what looked like a normal driveway to a house/under construction restaurant. It didn't look like a fun place to explore or somewhere that would offer any real seclusion from the street -- and there was way more of that in the park on the other side of the street if that's what they wanted. The geography makes no sense to me unless one of them knew about the staircase.

This is one reason I wonder about the CCTV footage from the house. Did he seem to be leading her there purposefully? Are they just stumbling on it? That would seem to have a lot of implications. If he was leading her, that makes me think he either scoped it out OR knew about it some other way, ie he'd been to the restaurant back when it was open or he's otherwise local.

I hope and pray that police have more on this case than they're telling us right now.

 

[CoolJ]

He could have come off a ship in the harbour. He does have a bit of a European look about him, but if he was the unidentified man at the house, surely the occupants would have noticed an accent.

yep eastern european is what pops into my head when i look at him. Czech/Slovak, Polish etc..

 

[Eikon1990]

I think it's definitely possible he came from somewhere else and has left now. There are a couple of things that suggest he was local or at least frequents Toronto though.

There was the other possible sighting of him at Crews & Tangos. Timeline on that was a little unclear. The person just said they saw him the previous Saturday -- I think they meant Saturday the 2nd? That would suggest he was around for at least another week after the murder. He was apparently trying to get people to go with him to El Convento Rico. This at least suggests some familiarity with clubs in the area. (Again, this is all assuming it was actually him and not somebody who just looked vaguely like him, but it seems relatively credible.)

There was also a semi-promising potential sighting at the Yonge St. McDonalds after the images were released. It's pretty hard to tell how seriously to take this one. The Crews one seems more credible to me since the behaviour/location would seem easier to match with the POI.

The other thing is, I'm still not convinced that he didn't scope out this stairwell in advance for these purposes. There was no way of knowing this stairwell was there from the street -- I walked past dozens of times and had no idea until I saw a picture of the memorial that included the staircase in it. It was pretty much hidden behind a mound of gravel.

Now, yes, they could have stumbled upon it exploring/looking for seclusion. But I just have trouble believing they'd enter what looked like a normal driveway to a house/under construction restaurant. It didn't look like a fun place to explore or somewhere that would offer any real seclusion from the street -- and there was way more of that in the park on the other side of the street if that's what they wanted. The geography makes no sense to me unless one of them knew about the staircase.

This is one reason I wonder about the CCTV footage from the house. Did he seem to be leading her there purposefully? Are they just stumbling on it? That would seem to have a lot of implications. If he was leading her, that makes me think he either scoped it out OR knew about it some other way, ie he'd been to the restaurant back when it was open or he's otherwise local.

I hope and pray that police have more on this case than they're telling us right now.

I sincerely doubt the alleyway was picked out in advance. According to this article, there are up to 5 security cameras all within 20 metres of where Tess was found.* And according to the police press conference, police literally have video of him leading Tess down the alleyway and exiting alone.* If this guy scouted out the location in advance he would have seen the cameras:

http://torontosun.com/news/local-ne...-where-slain-woman-tess-richey-was-discovered

With respect to the sighting you were referring to, I think this might be the one:

https://twitter.com/butilovememore/status/940247453378457600

"He watched us from across the street, then approached.* Opened a cab door to us, and asked if we wanted to go to El Convento Rico. He was alone. Weird vibe."

She says she reported this info to Crime Stoppers.*

You’re right the timing is weird though. Tess was murdered in the early morning of November 25th.* The body was found on the 29th and it was ruled on homicide on December 1st. Police released the suspects photo on Sunday December 10th.* This girl posted on December 11th claiming she saw him “last Saturday” which would be December 2nd? The only way this sighting makes sense is if she was confused with the timing and was actually referring to a week earlier (November 25th). How stupid would the suspect have to be to approach women outside the bar linked to the Tess Richey murder, a day after it was ruled a homicide (on December 2nd)?

IF this was an authentic sighting of the suspect on November 25th – a big IF - you have to ask is why El Convento Rico?* Youre at Church and Wellesley and you want to go to College West?* There are a lot of great bars closer to the area they were in. It could be that its the suspects favourite bar.* In which case the staff there could easily recognize him. More probable, that location was preferred because he lives in that area or at least was staying nearby that night.* El Convento Rico is likely a convenient pit-stop before "going back to his place". He might even live within walking distance of there.

IF it was an authentic sighting it also means the suspect was clearly desperate to pick up.* He was approaching multiple groups of people, ALONE and OUTSIDE Crews and Tango.* This guy must have heard Crews and Tango was a good place to pick-up or maybe he is specifically into Trans girls?* Crews is a drag bar and i believe Tess's friend is Transgender.

If he is trying to pick up girls outside bars by himself, then he most likely tries to pick-up online as well.* He most likely has or had a presence on Tinder, Grindr, Craigslist, Adult Friend Finder and whatever other apps or websites people use for one-night stands – maybe ones specifically for transgender people if that is what he is into?

He most definitely would get spooked when his photo appeared in the media.* I would imagine he would try to delete at least some of his online presence.* According to this article Facebook shares user’s information with the police 80% of the time even without a warrant.

https://www.techworld.com/social-me...ith-police-80-of-time-warrant-or-not-3658735/

I’m sure in murder investigations, with a warrant, its 100% of the time. The Police could probably get a list of users on pick-up sites/apps in the Toronto area that deleted their account profiles since the murder. And another list of males of a certain range that were targeting/filtering for transgender girls online. You could end up with a big list – but you could start mining it for males in a certain age range, paired with other information. Nothing is truly ever deleted so Im sure user profile photos could be recovered as well. They could also try to match up IP addresses connected to user profiles with street addresses near certain areas like El Convento Rico and Church and Wellesley.

The more I think about how sloppy this guy was the more toast I think he is.* He was caught on camera all but committing the act and his face pic is currently circulating in the media and online. God knows how many other cameras picked him up that night. With the technology available today, he is toast. If he has any intelligence at all he would lawyer up and turn himself in because the justice system will treat him more favourably that way.

 

[LushGerbil]

I sincerely doubt the alleyway was picked out in advance. According to this article, there are up to 5 security cameras all within 20 metres of where Tess was found.* And according to the police press conference, police literally have video of him leading Tess down the alleyway and exiting alone.* If this guy scouted out the location in advance he would have seen the cameras:

http://torontosun.com/news/local-ne...-where-slain-woman-tess-richey-was-discovered

With respect to the sighting you were referring to, I think this might be the one:

https://twitter.com/butilovememore/status/940247453378457600

"He watched us from across the street, then approached.* Opened a cab door to us, and asked if we wanted to go to El Convento Rico. He was alone. Weird vibe."

She says she reported this info to Crime Stoppers.*

You’re right the timing is weird though. Tess was murdered in the early morning of November 25th.* The body was found on the 29th and it was ruled on homicide on December 1st. Police released the suspects photo on Sunday December 10th.* This girl posted on December 11th claiming she saw him “last Saturday” which would be December 2nd? The only way this sighting makes sense is if she was confused with the timing and was actually referring to a week earlier (November 25th). How stupid would the suspect have to be to approach women outside the bar linked to the Tess Richey murder, a day after it was ruled a homicide (on December 2nd)?

IF this was an authentic sighting of the suspect on November 25th – a big IF - you have to ask is why El Convento Rico?* Youre at Church and Wellesley and you want to go to College West?* There are a lot of great bars closer to the area they were in. It could be that its the suspects favourite bar.* In which case the staff there could easily recognize him. More probable, that location was preferred because he lives in that area or at least was staying nearby that night.* El Convento Rico is likely a convenient pit-stop before "going back to his place". He might even live within walking distance of there.

IF it was an authentic sighting it also means the suspect was clearly desperate to pick up.* He was approaching multiple groups of people, ALONE and OUTSIDE Crews and Tango.* This guy must have heard Crews and Tango was a good place to pick-up or maybe he is specifically into Trans girls?* Crews is a drag bar and i believe Tess's friend is Transgender.

If he is trying to pick up girls outside bars by himself, then he most likely tries to pick-up online as well.* He most likely has or had a presence on Tinder, Grindr, Craigslist, Adult Friend Finder and whatever other apps or websites people use for one-night stands – maybe ones specifically for transgender people if that is what he is into?

He most definitely would get spooked when his photo appeared in the media.* I would imagine he would try to delete at least some of his online presence.* According to this article Facebook shares user’s information with the police 80% of the time even without a warrant.

https://www.techworld.com/social-me...ith-police-80-of-time-warrant-or-not-3658735/

I’m sure in murder investigations, with a warrant, its 100% of the time. The Police could probably get a list of users on pick-up sites/apps in the Toronto area that deleted their account profiles since the murder. And another list of males of a certain range that were targeting/filtering for transgender girls online. You could end up with a big list – but you could start mining it for males in a certain age range, paired with other information. Nothing is truly ever deleted so Im sure user profile photos could be recovered as well. They could also try to match up IP addresses connected to user profiles with street addresses near certain areas like El Convento Rico and Church and Wellesley.

The more I think about how sloppy this guy was the more toast I think he is.* He was caught on camera all but committing the act and his face pic is currently circulating in the media and online. God knows how many other cameras picked him up that night. With the technology available today, he is toast. If he has any intelligence at all he would lawyer up and turn himself in because the justice system will treat him more favourably that way.

Yeah, I suppose the "picked out in advance" idea is a stretch even if it was my strong original gut instinct based on the geography. It's entirely possible he just got lucky with a spot where he could do this and where she wouldn't be found for that long.

While the Crews sighting happened right after it was declared a homicide, there wasn't much information about the suspect available yet. (I'm not even sure if they'd released that original inaccurate and vague description that described him as having light hair.) So it's possible the POI was feeling cocky and like he'd gotten away with it.

I hope you're right about the rest. It feels like it's been a lot longer than it has been since his picture was released, and it's entirely possible police even already have some strong leads and are playing them close to the vest while they dots "I"s and cross "T"s.