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

[LushGerbil]

I seem to remember getting the sense from MSM articles that the Uber driver arrived and Tess wasn’t there so he/she canceled the ride. Maybe I just assumed that, but that’s the sense I got.

I’m wondering if she rebuffed him and he murdered her in a rage and then saw the staircase and used it to try to make it look like an accident. How could he have known the house they went to after leaving the hot dog stand would be so close to this alley? I don’t think it was all planned out to happen the way it did, but he may be very familiar with the area.

I’m wondering if maybe she didn’t want him coming home with her/want to go home with him and that set him off. Seems like that conversation would take place around the time an Uber is called. I’d love to see their body language before/while going into the alley and the suspects when he emerges. I think it could be telling.

Does anyone have any thoughts on if he’s done this before? Surely he has, I would think, but have there been many other missing/murdered girls in this area? I know there have been quite a few gay men that have gone missing, but other than Alloura(who falls into at least a slightly different category IMO) I’m personally not aware of any similar cases.


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The thing is, I keep hearing this spot described as an alley that they went into. But as far as I can tell, it's much more just a driveway to the house. There's not really any other way in or out of it. (Full disclosure, I went and left something at the memorial and took a look around while doing that.)

In addition to the body language stuff you're asking, I'm wondering just how long it was from the time they entered the stairwell area to when he emerged without her. Did they hang around for a while? Long enough for her to decide she wasn't into it and call the Uber? Long enough for him to then get worked up and do what he did? Or was it brief, just long enough for him to do it, implying it was what he brought her there for in the first place?

And I wouldn't be surprised if when this guy is eventually caught there have been a few missing persons cases that happened in his orbit, ala Dellen Millard. His clothes, haircut, and mannerisms in the pictures actually give me a bit of a Millard vibe. But no, I don't think the other disappearances from the area really fit with this guy, especially since they were larger men. He doesn't look particularly physically imposing, but I guess it's possible he's previously used a weapon.

 

[lcid]

The thing is, I keep hearing this spot described as an alley that they went into. But as far as I can tell, it's much more just a driveway to the house. There's not really any other way in or out of it. (Full disclosure, I went and left something at the memorial and took a look around while doing that.)

In addition to the body language stuff you're asking, I'm wondering just how long it was from the time they entered the stairwell area to when he emerged without her. Did they hang around for a while? Long enough for her to decide she wasn't into it and call the Uber? Long enough for him to then get worked up and do what he did? Or was it brief, just long enough for him to do it, implying it was what he brought her there for in the first place?

And I wouldn't be surprised if when this guy is eventually caught there have been a few missing persons cases that happened in his orbit, ala Dellen Millard. His clothes, haircut, and mannerisms in the pictures actually give me a bit of a Millard vibe. But no, I don't think the other disappearances from the area really fit with this guy, especially since they were larger men. He doesn't look particularly physically imposing, but I guess it's possible he's previously used a weapon.

With you here. Media keeps reporting as if it's secluded. This is an area that's easy to walk into.

Also been wondering the same re: timing. Had they been there a while before he left? how about the length of time between calling the Uber and him leaving...?

 

[LushGerbil]

With you here. Media keeps reporting as if it's secluded. This is an area that's easy to walk into.

Also been wondering the same re: timing. Had they been there a while before he left? how about the length of time between calling the Uber and him leaving...?

Yeah, that's a good observation: the only actual secluded part is the stairway itself. The driveway is just... a completely open driveway to a house. You wouldn't think to walk up it if you were looking for seclusion. Hence my theory about the suspect scoping it out in advance.

It seems like with the stairway video and the Uber call, you'd be able to establish a pretty solid timeline.

 

[yurena]

Sorry but this angers me... why would someone leave a friend -a female friend- alone at 4 am instead of making sure she arrived safe and sound at her place? I am not in my twenties anymore but when I was and went for dinner & later disco with friends we always made sure we either walked home together or we shared a taxi who left each of us in our front door. This tragic death could have been avoided if people were not so selfish, only caring about themselves.
Again sorry for the rant but I needed to get that off my chest.
RIP Tess

 

[ttcRider]

a lot of homeless people will sleep in stairwells like that... maybe he is homeless?

 

[LushGerbil]

Sorry but this angers me... why would someone leave a friend -a female friend- alone at 4 am instead of making sure she arrived safe and sound at her place? I am not in my twenties anymore but when I was and went for dinner & later disco with friends we always made sure we either walked home together or we shared a taxi who left each of us in our front door. This tragic death could have been avoided if people were not so selfish, only caring about themselves.
Again sorry for the rant but I needed to get that off my chest.
RIP Tess

I imagine her friend's having to deal with a lot of guilt now. It sounds like they were all pretty wasted and she maybe didn't make a decision she would have made under normal circumstances. It's also possible that it seemed like Tess was intent on going home with this guy at the time they parted and no one was suspicious of him as anything other than a hookup.

I hope none of this comes off as minimizing. I can totally understand why you feel angry and need to rant about it. It's just such a sad and horrible situation.

 

[JLD333]

Sorry but this angers me... why would someone leave a friend -a female friend- alone at 4 am instead of making sure she arrived safe and sound at her place? I am not in my twenties anymore but when I was and went for dinner & later disco with friends we always made sure we either walked home together or we shared a taxi who left each of us in our front door. This tragic death could have been avoided if people were not so selfish, only caring about themselves.
Again sorry for the rant but I needed to get that off my chest.
RIP Tess

If they were highly intoxicated and the friend was ready to go home and Tess wasn’t, that sort of thing happens often with young people. You can’t blame her friend for not thinking that she might get *murdered* by this random guy.

Let’s blame the murderer here, not the friend who likely already feels awful enough. She’s not responsible for this mans actions.


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[Russian Blue]

If they were highly intoxicated and the friend was ready to go home and Tess wasn’t, that sort of thing happens often with young people. You can’t blame her friend for not thinking that she might get *murdered* by this random guy.

Let’s blame the murderer here, not the friend who likely already feels awful enough. She’s not responsible for this mans actions.


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I am going to go with you on that one. I have been in that impossible situation with 2 friends over the years. Alcohol which I do drink (I am not on a soap box on booze here) can make some people belligerent.

In a cold sober moment everyone agrees to basic good common safety sense such as: never separate, leave together if you do such as take separate cars or ubers, trains, etc. keep in contact, call when you get home. Don't leave with strangers, if they are such a wonderful person you just met, meet up with them for coffee the next day, dropping someone off wait until they get in and turn on the lights, we all know these things and tell our kids.

But then someone has a few drinks and you loosen the rules, he / she seems like a nice person, ah it will be all right, I want to go home its 4 am my friend doesn't she won't listen, won't come with me, you give up. Not that you don't care but it is going nowhere.

I had a friend who would do that. Get pissy when she was drunk and make it impossible to let you walk her to her car, or she would want to go just have one more with some dude. I could go on with more examples but I hope you get the point.
Spoiling her fun.

 

[lcid]

I am going to go with you on that one. I have been in that impossible situation with 2 friends over the years. Alcohol which I do drink (I am not on a soap box on booze here) can make some people belligerent.

In a cold sober moment everyone agrees to basic good common safety sense such as: never separate, leave together if you do such as take separate cars or ubers, trains, etc. keep in contact, call when you get home. Don't leave with strangers, if they are such a wonderful person you just met, meet up with them for coffee the next day, dropping someone off wait until they get in and turn on the lights, we all know these things and tell our kids.

But then someone has a few drinks and you loosen the rules, he / she seems like a nice person, ah it will be all right, I want to go home its 4 am my friend doesn't she won't listen, won't come with me, you give up. Not that you don't care but it is going nowhere.

I had a friend who would do that. Get pissy when she was drunk and make it impossible to let you walk her to her car, or she would want to go just have one more with some dude. I could go on with more examples but I hope you get the point.
Spoiling her fun.

At first I questioned how her friend could possibly leave her too... I was angry. It breaks the rules women set of never leaving someone behind on a night out. But then I took a sec and I thought about myself. In my early 20s many friends had to drag me away (despite my protests) from staying at a club or going home with a random guy. I was mean and gave them a hard time about it, and sometimes I still even jokingly remind them that they did that. But after what's happened to Tess, I'm extremely grateful that my friends did that.

Her friend is young as well and not from Toronto. There is a serious misconception when people come to the Village from outside of the city that the Village is a very safe place because of the nature of the community. I wish that were the case. There are bad people everywhere, and there are always infiltrators too. I am sure that her friend thought that Tess would be safe.

 

[LushGerbil]

I've been trying to weigh the likelihood that this guy is local to the area vs. was visiting from somewhere farther away.

Local:
-came from one direction (west on Wellesley) and left going another (north on Church) -- suggests to me he has at least some knowledge of area, as if you were fully a tourist you may be more likely to try to retrace your steps rather than risk getting lost going another way
-couple of potential-but-unverified sightings in Church/Wellesley area since crime
-based on geography of crime, may have had knowledge of area or at least ability to scope out the location in advance

Not local:
-his picture has been pretty broadly disseminated in Toronto and still no arrest
-no one in Church/Wellesley community seems to know who he is or remembers encountering him prior to crime

Looking at his clothes and haircut, this guy kind of screams student or recent graduate to me. What do you think?

 

[yurena]

I've been trying to weigh the likelihood that this guy is local to the area vs. was visiting from somewhere farther away.

Local:
-came from one direction (west on Wellesley) and left going another (north on Church) -- suggests to me he has at least some knowledge of area, as if you were fully a tourist you may be more likely to try to retrace your steps rather than risk getting lost going another way
-couple of potential-but-unverified sightings in Church/Wellesley area since crime
-based on geography of crime, may have had knowledge of area or at least ability to scope out the location in advance

Not local:
-his picture has been pretty broadly disseminated in Toronto and still no arrest
-no one in Church/Wellesley community seems to know who he is or remembers encountering him prior to crime

Looking at his clothes and haircut, this guy kind of screams student or recent graduate to me. What do you think?

He does, he definitely has the looks of a graduate student.

 

[LushGerbil]

He does, he definitely has the looks of a graduate student.

Totally. The coat's not expensive but also not cheap or ugly. He looks like he could've gotten that haircut at any of a million places in Toronto for 20 bucks or less -- hell, I've gone to the place directly across the street in the suspect images in my leaner student days, and it produces haircuts like that.

Based on the tightness of the pants, I'd put him pretty squarely in the 25-30 age range. They're also notably not jeans, but trousers.

It would be nice if we could get a more specific height based on his height relative to everything else on that sidewalk. He's right beside the hot dog cart. It should NOT be hard to nail it down to within an inch with even a little work.

I also understand why TPS didn't release an image of the back of his head, but in this case it might be kind of useful as it looks like he might have some balding happening on top and kind of a distinctive headshape.

 

[lcid]

As a graduate student myself, lol! Could also be a young professional, but we all look the same on a Saturday night.
The coat looks pretty ugly to me, tbh.

 

[Russian Blue]

It would be nice if we could get a more specific height based on his height relative to everything else on that sidewalk. He's right beside the hot dog cart. It should NOT be hard to nail it down to within an inch with even a little work

I sure hope the hot dog stand guy was able to supply some information and we just don't know yet.

 

[LushGerbil]

As a graduate student myself, lol! Could also be a young professional, but we all look the same on a Saturday night.
The coat looks pretty ugly to me, tbh.

Yeah, no student/graduate student disrespect intended. I could also see him being somebody recently out of school.

And I'm not really equipped to extensively appraise his fashion choices, but I'll just say that I mean the coat's not tattered or especially egregious.

 

[lcid]

I wonder if there are any more images, video, that they could release. We keep saying it... mannerisms could help. But maybe they don't want to show a video of Tess walking with him. Maybe painful for the family. I don't know.

 

[LushGerbil]

I wonder if there are any more images, video, that they could release. We keep saying it... mannerisms could help. But maybe they don't want to show a video of Tess walking with him. Maybe painful for the family. I don't know.

I wonder what the ATM's video framerate is. Does it actually produce a smooth video that usefully demonstrates mannerisms or is it one that takes something more like still images every second?

If they followed the path we know so far, I can't imagine better or more reliable shots than the ATM would've produced either way. If he walked northbound on the west side of Church, I can't really think of anything that would have had cameras that would've picked him up at all.

I do wonder: why was he walking north toward Bloor if he originally came from west on Wellesley? My initial guess was Bloor line subway, but it would've been closed for another couple hours. Could he have been catching an Uber or taxi and just putting some distance between himself and the crime scene first? Is he local to just slightly north within walking distance? I guess he could have also drove, but I can't think of parking that really makes sense unless he parked at the hospital at Bloor/Church which seems unlikely.

 

[JLD333]

I would bet the suspect was at a club/bar before the hot dog stand, so where he came from before meeting Tess may not give us much info. Unless someone can narrow down the establishment he may have been at previously...


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[LushGerbil]

I would bet the suspect was at a club/bar before the hot dog stand, so where he came from before meeting Tess may not give us much info. Unless someone can narrow down the establishment he may have been at previously...


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Yeah, I'm definitely grasping at straws. If he did come from the west, there are some possibilities, but it'd be tough to pin down since he would've been coming from somewhere other than the Village proper.

I'm wondering if it would be useful to post the images and police press release on the subreddits for other cities in the GTA where he could have commuted from? ie, Brampton, Mississauga, Hamilton, etc.

My main concern is that this may just end up cranking up the noise-to-signal ratio of any tips police are receiving.

 

[ttcRider]

The 48-year-old suspect in the death of Japanese student Natsumi Kogawa in BC was homeless and everyone was surprised bc of how he looked and dressed in the CCTV photos. Just saying, this guy could be transient and not even from Toronto. Could be why no one recognizes him. He could have moved on out of the city/province by now. JMO