CANADA (Punky) Corrine Gustavson's Homicide Cold Case (Resolved???)

[GhostFromThePast]

"Hello WS,
I am currently investigating the case of Corrine (Punky) Gustavson. The crime took place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1992.
I want to share the discrepancies found when I researched the case; trial, and conviction of Clifford Mathew Sleigh.
First of all, I would like to ask if anyone else out there has any personal knowledge of the case; and agrees there are odd questions regarding this case. ~GhostFromThePast"

Corrine Gustavson: Edmonton, September 6, 1992.

The graduation photo of a smiling, blonde six-year-old kindergartener became etched in the memories of many Edmontonians when Corrine Gustavson was abducted by a stranger while playing with a friend outside her east Edmonton home. Her friend ran home and told her mom that Gustavson had been grabbed by “the boogey-man.”

A massive search immediately ensued for the little girl who the public came to know by her nickname, Punky, for her un-ruly hair. The case was even featured on the American TV series Unsolved Mysteries.

Shocked and frightened neighbors wouldn’t let their children out to play. Some talked of moving out of the Rundle Park Village townhouse complex at 34th Street and 118th Avenue.

The search for Punky ended two days later, when her fully clothed body was found lying face down in the mud between two semi-trailers in a Strathcona County trucking yard at 2133 84th Avenue. Corrine had been sexually assaulted and smothered.

The search for Punky’s killer went on for more than 10 years, generating more than 5,100 tips from every province in Canada and 30 U.S. states, and hundreds of suspects investigated by 400 police officers working on the file at various times. It was one of the largest, most prolific, and expensive cases ever undertaken by Edmonton police to date.

Using DNA evidence, police eventually charged 40-year-old Clifford Sleigh – who had been a potential suspect within the first year after the crime- with first- degree murder- kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault.

Sleigh was serving a 13-year sentence at a medium-security Bowden Institution outside of Edmonton for unrelated sexual assault, forcible confinement and various other charges at the time of his arrest.

In his confession to police, Sleigh said he had spent the night before the abduction drinking with family, and became upset with his common-law wife. He got up early that Sunday morning to get some cigarettes, drove around, bumped into an acquaintance, drained a bottle of wine with him and was turning around in the parking lot of a townhouse development before heading home. He spied Punky and her friend, Lindsay Mooswah, playing outside and decided to take the girl who was closest to the fence.

Sleigh admitted he raped Punky, but insisted he left her alive and blindfolded, sitting on the flatbed of a truck in an isolated industrial yard on the outskirts of Edmonton.

Police had concluded Sleigh was a psychopath, an unemotional, impulsive and manipulative con who felt no remorse for his victims.

Forensic psychologist Al Hayduk added to this assessment, telling them that an offender like Sleigh has limited coping skills, so when he is under stress, he resorts to violence to relieve the pressure.

On May 27, 2005, Justice Terrance Clackson, who had earlier found Sleigh guilty of all charges, handed him the mandatory life sentence for first-degree murder, with no parole eligibility for 25 years.

 

[LadyL]

did you write that?

 

[GhostFromThePast]

Is Mathew Sleigh guilty?

Convicted killer Mathew Sleigh depicts the victim as wearing a dress. This is untrue. The victim was said to be dressed in a rather rushed and sloppy manner; wearing white with black polka-dot sweatpants (pants on backward), underpants half on with both legs shoved into one hole, an oversized pink and purple jacket that was wrapped around the little girl without her arms stuffed into the sleeves.

Mathew Sleigh goes on to say that Corrine was left 'alive' sitting on a flatbed of the truck trailers. He confessed that he made a makeshift blindfold using her underpants.

~More to come on this subject~ Clifford mentions in the article he left her alive on September 6, 1992. Her body was found on September 8, 1992. Corrine's grave states she died on the 8th. The killer would have had to have kept Corrine for two days. Clifford was not a resident of Edmonton, he was merely a guest visiting from out of town with his common-law spouse at her family's apartment. Where would he have kept a six-year-old girl for the two days?

In the victim impact statement, Corrine's mother laments about her daughter's last days alive.
“It took me a long time to get over being alone. When I did find myself alone I (couldn’t) stop thinking about her, what she went through. Was she cold? Did she hurt? Did she call out for me? I constantly wonder in my mind what she went through. What did you do to her for those days that you had her? Did she ask you to bring her home to me?” - https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/no-parole-for-killer-of-six-year-old/article1119432/

It is concerning when the victim's own mother is asking these questions when Clifford told police he abducted, raped and left the victim alone/freed on September 6th.

No push for answers as to where Corrine was for two days.

If Clifford placed Corrine alive on the flatbed trailer as he stated to the investigators at the time of confession and to the court, why was her body found lying face down with no footprints, or hand marks left of her own? The only marks left in the soil were those of tire tracks left by a car and cleated shoe prints presumably left by her killer, while she was already deceased, carried to that spot and left there. No indication of a scuffle; or any signs she was alive was imprinted in the damp soil around her body.


How long was she deceased? Where was she murdered? Did the killer keep Corrine from the date of her abduction September 6th to September 8th, the day her body was found?


Forensics: The soil was tested at the site where Corrine’s body was found, it does not match the soil left on her body, a strong indication she was killed elsewhere and disposed of in the trucking yard. A single pubic hair was found on Corrine’s ankle caked in mud- police would later identify that pubic hair as MA-7.

Sleigh mentions he fears being killed in prison. ~In the articles I've located. Clifford mentions that his best friend (inmate) committed suicide two days prior to his confession. Mental state??? During this week Clifford was suicidal and assessed by the penitentiary nurse, he was said to have been suffering from depression. Was there a threat to his safety?
Shortly after a confession, Clifford was arrested and charged with Corrine’s murder. He was then moved from Bowden Penitentiary to a maximum security prison.
No voice/video recording was made at the time of Clifford’s initial police interrogation while in custody. The investigators had told him they found his DNA on Corrine’s underwear, a tactic police use to make a suspect crack under pressure.

Source Edmonton Journal May 17, 2005

Forensic files:
Part I [PDF] Forensic Case Homicide of Punky Gustavson Part I Forensic Case Punky Gustavson Part I - Free Download PDF
Part 2 Putting away Punky's killer: the inside story: LAW AND ... Pages 1-16 - Flip PDF Download | FlipHTML5

 

[GhostFromThePast]

A Cinderella Glass Slipper Scenario? ...Well if the shoe fits!
Clifford Sleigh is 5'11. How can he possibly fit a size 5.5-7 shoe?
Early in the investigation 1992, the media and news reported the size of the shoe that was found at the scene.


Clifford is 5’11, he cannot possibly fit a size 6 or 7 shoe. The cleated footprints left at the crime scene were molded and taken as key evidence. The articles printed in the newspapers remarked that the shoe size was small enough that they suspected a woman, or teenager could be the culprit, or aided the killer in the disposal of Corrine’s body.

Shoe size: In a bizarre opening to the first day of the trial, Sleigh's defense team had him confess to everything in full view of the jury in an "apparent" attempt to plea bargain the charge. The prosecution then rejected the bid with the jury present and the trial was then delayed under a publication ban while a voir dire ensued for undisclosed reasons. The shoe type was mentioned but the size was not. Given Sleigh's confession, there should have been no problem with confirming whether his foot size matched the evidence. The media is well aware of this important little detail but has made no mention of it either. Clifford Sleigh would not generate much sympathy even if innocent and that is why an open trial with complete disclosure is necessary in order to close this case with confidence once and for all. Questions will continue as long as the foot size evidence is with-held. If the shoe size matches, why was this not confirmed by the prosecution? If the size does not match, why has this not been brought up by Sleigh's defense? Questions about Sleigh's entire defense arise as a result. Sleigh will no doubt be convicted now whether the shoe fit or not.

More questions arose about the handling of this case as the details leaked out. Sleigh confessed to
everything right up to the point where he would have to fit the size-six shoe in order for his confession to match the evidence. There his story deviated and reports later surfaced claiming the shoe evidence did not match. Was another suspect involved?


-Rockwood and Wilks took Sleigh's cleats to Const. Brent Ball of the EPS identification section. Ball had looked at hundreds of cleats in the case and had found few if any, matches. Now he ruled out Sleigh's cleats as being similar to the killer's cleats.

There is inconsistency with the news stories being told in 2005. The police then claim that the footprints matched Sleigh's.
Quote: Police had considered him a suspect early in the investigation, and said his baseball cleats matched prints where Punky's body had been found.
*How do shoes that did not match the evidence in 1994, now match in 2005?

*Soil mentioned* The soil was tested, which resulted in the discovery that the soil caked on Corrine's ankles does not match the soil at the crime scene. Corrine was murdered elsewhere and her body was left at the truck yard.

 

[GhostFromThePast]

The defense lawyer was repulsed by his client. (Legal Aid Lawyer or court appointed)


Clifford’s confession -Police interrogated Clifford the day before Clifford's so-called ‘confession’. Was this first meeting recorded? Police interview him again and record him stating that the weekend of Corrine’s murder he fought with his common-law spouse. Clifford set out to punish someone the day following the fight -Did the Crown use this information to make Clifford appear violent as suggested in the article? That is exactly what they did in the trial. The prosecutor said Clifford admitted to wanting to punish someone and that ‘someone’ was Corrine.

All of Clifford's admissions to the crime did not match what was published. The defense was aware of this.
Clifford is arrested and charged anyway. Further questions regarding his mental state arise when in another article Clifford’s mental state was in question when his in-mate best friend committed suicide. Clifford mentioned fearing for his life. The defense should have mentioned that Sleigh’s foot was bigger than the size six shoe found at the crime scene. The fact the Mitre brand cleat was mentioned and size was not. Defense failed. The defense was concerned about a fair trial. It is a fact that trial by jury is flawed when the jurors believe the police did their job and why would they send an innocent man to trial unless he was guilty?
-Concern about jurors being unable to put their emotions aside and set their racial and discriminatory bias aside.

Clifford’s defense put forth no witnesses and Clifford did not get cross-examined.

*Kelly Smith’s car (Chrysler Daytona) is mentioned as being the one Clifford used to abduct and dispose of Corrine.

-Does the above car match the axle and wheelbase dimensions of the cars previously mentioned in the article as being a K-car? It is a front-wheel drive, American car. The media article uses the following cars as an example of what cars may have made the prints left at the scene; Dodge Aries, FordTempo, and Chevrolet Cavalier.

*Wheelbase A 1986 Dodge Daytona is not the same length wheelbase as the following. The Dodge Daytona wheelbase is 97.1”, Dodge Aries is 100.3”, Chevrolet Cavalier 101.2”, and lastly Ford Tempo 99.9”. Police would have the exact information of the wheelbase left at the scene. (All cars I entered as a 1986, I only did this to test out this theory and to see if the car Clifford was said to have borrowed from Gail Smith's family would match the K-cars in the article)
^^^^^Can the wheelbase be calculated to an exact science and be evidence of which car make and model was at the crime scene?^^^^^ If not, that's ok. I am an amateur! It was fun looking into that regardless ~shrug~

 

[GhostFromThePast]

DNA:


DNA-A year following the death of Corrine, Clifford was asked to supply police with DNA standards in 1993, which he readily complied.

In 2003, following the confession of Clifford Sleigh of rape and murdering Corrine Gustavson, police gather DNA standards from Clifford again, claiming that the DNA standards he was asked to provide in 1993 had been used up in his previous rape cases. While we know that DNA cannot simply be used up…

??? A DNA profile can be preserved in numerous ways, including as a digitized computer profile. You do not need the actual DNA every time you do a comparison, a person's DNA doesn't change. You do not have to give a new blood sample every time in order to determine your blood type!

The earlier testing results were supposedly used in a separate court case which Sleigh was convicted. The results would have to have been preserved in order to be presented there.

It was an unnamed retired RCMP member who returned to collect the second DNA sample from Sleigh) Who was this "retired" RCMP member and why is he not named? The flaw in this procedure is that the credibility of the evidence is dependent upon the credibility of the "collector". According to this DNA collection procedure, it would be perfectly acceptable for the RCMP to have the now-retired Gary Tidsbury (Murrin's handler) collect the DNA sample from Sleigh and present it as evidence. The RCMP member who collects the evidence must be named for any credibility! Loopholes exist in this system which could be used to generate a wrongful conviction or a false acquittal. The system needs to have clearly defined DNA collection and handling procedures manned by accountable personnel, not by un-named anonymous agents. The RCMP saying just "trust us" doesn't work anymore.
The suspicious DNA results found in Mindy Tran's case resulted in Murrin's acquittal, had apparently originated from the same lab in England conducting the testing in Punky's case. A major DNA lab in England has since admitted that an employee had been caught falsifying DNA results!

 

[GhostFromThePast]

Trial: Sleigh stated that part of his motivation for providing the information was a guilty conscience, and the fact that a friend had recently committed suicide in jail, which Sleigh felt was a coward's way out. -Mental state? Clifford was assessed for expressing suicidal ideology. Police mention at the time of confession Clifford was emotionless.

He said he hoped the family would get some closure from his admissions.

Sleigh tried to plead guilty to manslaughter at the beginning of the trial, but the Crown proceeded with a charge of first-degree murder.

Trial by Jury was given although they had originally pushed for trial by judge. Court was in session for one day before they adjourned and had to have a voir dire trial. Court resumed the following week.

Was evidence removed that would have proven Clifford’s innocence? Why were serious questions withheld and why was Clifford's lawyer not mentioning shoe size or that the DNA- MA-7 pubic hair was used to rule out suspect Shannon Murrin in the case of Corrine Gustavson, who was also a suspect in the Mindy Tran murder and rape investigation in British Columbia. Police were ruling out the possibility of a possible serial killer and the cases correlating.

If the police used the MA-7 hair to rule out a suspect, why was Clifford Sleigh not ruled out when he had given police his DNA standards in 93’?

Why do the forensic files regarding DNA in Corrine’s case constantly contradict? They tested the underwear and no DNA had been previously found, and they claimed to say no DNA can be extracted from MA-7 at all.

Race: Jury selection was delayed due to questioning potential jurors if they believed Canadian native’s were more likely to be alcoholics and violent. Race became an issue.

5 women, 3 men were eventually selected, all of which are Caucasians.

Present day we now have the technology to discover DNA in rootless, or semi rootless hair.

 

[GhostFromThePast]

Some of you may be wondering why I care about Clifford and why I would be proving his innocence.
He is a bad man, a very bad man, however, I strongly believe he is the WRONG bad man. I do not care about Clifford let's make that clear.

The Corrine Gustuvson case is horrific, what happened to her should never happen to anyone.
I am only investigating the Corrine Gustavson case because I am deeply impacted and a victim related to this crime.
With your help, I can get my justice and hopefully have this case reopened and reviewed.
Please DO NOT inquire what my personal experience is, I do not want to leak that information. I will not share information of my own evidence either. All I will say is that you can only silence someone for so long...

Best

 

[GhostFromThePast]

Child Murderer Gives Cold-Blooded Confession | Cold Case Files | A&E​

5:38 min mark. Does Indigenous man Clifford Sleigh have white patch hair or is this simmulated to resemble eyewitness descriptions of the killer?

Google image for Clifford Sleigh does not have a white patch of hair. If Clifford was said to be already incarcerated at the time of his conviction for Corrine's murder, where would he get hair bleach? Why go to this extreme? To fool the viewers perhaps?

Below I attached both documentary photos of Clifford Sleigh's confession. They are actors and reenactments. The photo of Clifford in the red shirt was taken from Google.

The above documentary throws all eyewitness suspect descriptions out the window. Police were completely baffled because what they investigated for over a decade was the wrong information. Or was it?

 

[GhostFromThePast]

 

[GhostFromThePast]