GUILTY Canada - Renee Sweeney, 23, murdered, Sudbury, Ont, 27 Jan 1998 *arrest in 2018*

[know_what_i'm_sayin']

Lots of town gossip going on in Sudbury today. Nothing I can post here due to hearsay and no valid links to info. But I can say he was in court today and he's been given a 10 person contact ban. I've never heard of this before.

Accused murderer stoic in court appearance

 

[JuneBug67]

Lots of town gossip going on in Sudbury today. Nothing I can post here due to hearsay and no valid links to info. But I can say he was in court today and he's been given a 10 person contact ban. I've never heard of this before.

Accused murderer stoic in court appearance

It is actually pretty standard as part of bail proceedings. The accused are required not to contact victims, relevant witnesses etc.

 

[musicaljoke]

Accused murderer stoic in court appearance

The man accused of killing Renee Sweeney showed little emotion during an appearance in court Wednesday morning.

Robert Steven Wright, 39, appeared briefly in bail court at the Sudbury Courthouse and was remanded in custody to video bail remand court Dec. 20.

Wright’s charges were not read in.

The accused, who is being represented by lawyers Berk Keaney and Michael Venturi, appeared calm and replied in a soft-spoken manner when addressed by the Justice of the Peace.

 

[musicaljoke]

[A grade 12 student at the time said], “We were writing exams at that point,” he said. “I remember coming out of the school and police were just everywhere. We didn’t know what was going on at first because it was so fresh, but we heard through word of mouth and I remember watching the news that night.”

Hattie said he originally attended Lo-Ellen High School, where he had the same music teacher as Sweeney, although he didn’t know the victim personally as she was several years ahead of him. He transferred to Lockerby for its superior science and technology programs.

The high school off Walford Road is only about half a kilometre from the Paris Street plaza where the murder occurred, and students would often walk over there.

Hattie noted there was an arcade in the strip mall at one time, next-door to the Adults Only store where Sweeney worked, and a trail you could hike through the bush to get back toward Lockerby.

From the Sudbury Star Accused murderer stoic in court appearance

 

[musicaljoke]

'Renée fought him, and fought him hard': The history of the Sweeney murder case - BayToday.ca

“Renée fought him, and fought him hard,” Sgt. David Toffoli of the Greater Sudbury Police Service, then the lead investigator on the case, told Northern Life in 2010.

He explained that DNA under the young woman’s fingernails indicated she had scratched the killer several times. As the killer was fully clothed, except for his face and neck, the scratches would have likely been visible.

 

[Alison]

I am so pleased to hear that finally a suspect has been arrested. Renee was a music student at Laurentian Uni while I was there. This has been a long and difficult wait.

Wright was a high school student. Wouldn't the police have checked the local school attendence records? Perhaps they did. And that light-weight, green-blue nylon jacket must have stood out as especially odd in January. I wonder how many people will come out of the woodwork now, saying that they suspected this guy.

I had a friend who was interviewed because he missed school that day. My cousin was also interviewed because he had a criminal record. They interviewed many young men late teens and early twenties. They definitely considered the possibility of it being a high-school student.

 

[JuneBug67]

I had a friend who was interviewed because he missed school that day. My cousin was also interviewed because he had a criminal record. They interviewed many young men late teens and early twenties. They definitely considered the possibility of it being a high-school student.

My mom was a teacher, and one of her students got questioned as well. I also knew the guy who they actually arrested, charged and then later released. He was ten years too old, several inches too short and out of town at the time. Other than all that, it was a crack arrest.

 

[know_what_i'm_sayin']

My mom was a teacher, and one of her students got questioned as well. I also knew the guy who they actually arrested, charged and then later released. He was ten years too old, several inches too short and out of town at the time. Other than all that, it was a crack arrest.

Omg I remember that first arrest! I think he had a bus ticket stub proving he was out of town, and I have a vague memory of him suing after that for the public damage that was done to his name. My memory might be failing me on that last part tho.

 

[Nina Michigan]

Renee did fight him, then she fought to get to the phone and call for help.

Steve Wright is a soulless monster for what he did to her and her family.

 

[JuneBug67]

Omg I remember that first arrest! I think he had a bus ticket stub proving he was out of town, and I have a vague memory of him suing after that for the public damage that was done to his name. My memory might be failing me on that last part tho.

I bumped into him shortly after and was able to get some of the details. The arrest was made because they thought initially they had a fingerprint match. I honestly do not know what might have happened had he not had a solid alibi. He had had some brushes with the law in the past and wasn’t a person of means. Definitely a brush with the potential of being wrongly convicted. He told me in that conversation that he was planning on suing, but like you I don’t remember if that actually ever happened.

 

[JuneBug67]

Renee did fight him, then she fought to get to the phone and call for help.

Steve Wright is a soulless monster for what he did to her and her family.

If he is guilty, which certainly seems to be the case right now, he has allowed a lot of suffering to a lot of people for a long time. Massive resources output from a small city police department, family obligations to the investigations and the media to keep the case alive and in the minds of the city for twenty years, several young kids rattled by police inquiries and a couple of thousand people having their DNA tested by the CFS over the years.

His normally expensive, high profile attorney was reminding the media yesterday that the public was jumping to the conclusion that the case was solved, and called that a mistake. Technically true, but public sympathy for an accused who has already casued SO much pain to so many is pretty thin to nonexistent. He is presumed innocent right now, and an open mind is required, but it is hard to see how he doesn’t end up convicted at this point.

If he is guilty, and has any conscience at all, I think he should just confess and stop causing pain and creating public burden. Yes, he has no obligation to surrender his freedom, and yes, he has a right to force the Crown to prove its case against him, but..

 

[JuneBug67]

Does anybody have any insight on why they elected to arrest him at work? A hospital seems a non-optimal place to leave staff shocked, rattled and distracted. The only thing I have been able to think of is that it gave them an opportunity to execute the search warrants simultaneously and isolate potential witnesses like his wife?

 

[know_what_i'm_sayin']

Does anybody have any insight on why they elected to arrest him at work? A hospital seems a non-optimal place to leave staff shocked, rattled and distracted. The only thing I have been able to think of is that it gave them an opportunity to execute the search warrants simultaneously and isolate potential witnesses like his wife?

I've been thinking about this also. I'm wondering if he himself had something to do with any DNA testing related to this case... it's possible that Sudbury would chose to send samples to a neighboring town to lessen any bias. He may have come across this and fudged results, or perhaps a co-worker noticed he fudged results which raised red flags? I guess what I'm getting at, is if he somehow broke some rules at work, especially in regards to this case due to his personal involvement, that could warrant them taking him down at work. It must have been a terrible and traumatic scene for his co-workers and patients alike. I hear they were on lock down for over 30 minutes without being given any reason why before the arrest.

 

[know_what_i'm_sayin']

Does anyone know for sure if he is in fact married? I feel as tho I'm reading conflicting stories. If yes, do we know anything about her? I'm obviously not asking for a name, but basic info like is she also hospital staff. I didn't hear anything about a wife in court yesterday, only mention of parents.

 

[dotr]

Does anyone know for sure if he is in fact married? I feel as tho I'm reading conflicting stories. If yes, do we know anything about her? I'm obviously not asking for a name, but basic info like is she also hospital staff. I didn't hear anything about a wife in court yesterday, only mention of parents.

Also curious if he had an s/o of either gender.

 

[JuneBug67]

I've been thinking about this also. I'm wondering if he himself had something to do with any DNA testing related to this case... it's possible that Sudbury would chose to send samples to a neighboring town to lessen any bias. He may have come across this and fudged results, or perhaps a co-worker noticed he fudged results which raised red flags? I guess what I'm getting at, is if he somehow broke some rules at work, especially in regards to this case due to his personal involvement, that could warrant them taking him down at work. It must have been a terrible and traumatic scene for his co-workers and patients alike. I hear they were on lock down for over 30 minutes without being given any reason why before the arrest.

All the DNA testing would have been done at the Centre of Forensic Sciences, which is a government agency. The collection would have been done where the people were, and then sent off there.

I’m pretty sure the work arrest was strategic in some way, but not sure how.

 

[JuneBug67]

Does anyone know for sure if he is in fact married? I feel as tho I'm reading conflicting stories. If yes, do we know anything about her? I'm obviously not asking for a name, but basic info like is she also hospital staff. I didn't hear anything about a wife in court yesterday, only mention of parents.

My mom said he was married - past or present I don’t know - via her friend who knows his mom. But that’s through at least three hands, including mine, and I could be misremembering what she said!

 

[musicaljoke]

I had a friend who was interviewed because he missed school that day. My cousin was also interviewed because he had a criminal record. They interviewed many young men late teens and early twenties. They definitely considered the possibility of it being a high-school student.

...that could warrant them taking him down at work. It must have been a terrible and traumatic scene for his co-workers and patients alike. I hear they were on lock down for over 30 minutes without being given any reason why before the arrest.

It may have played out at the hospital because the hospital has a lockdown protocol in place. It'a done so quietly, that most people wouldn't know what is happening. Thirty minutes really isn't long to get in, make and arrest and get out. It's a huge hospital.

Funny story from our hospital: We had a situation in which a man in the waiting room was carrying a gun. The hospital went into lock down. Calmly and quickly, one by one, all the people in the waiting room, except the gun guy, were moved to safety, oblivious to the danger. The OPP contacted the closest officer to attend to the situation. When the local undercover police detective's phone rang, he didn't even realise that he was isolated in the hospital waiting room and that the hospital was in lock down. He was the gun guy.

 

[musicaljoke]

The Sudbury Star posted an apology for publishing the wrong picture of Steven Wright. Oops! Sudbury Star correction and apology

 

[know_what_i'm_sayin']

I'm worried about the bail hearing next week.... I can't imagine him being out on bail, I know it's possible, someone would have to post it and agree to be his guardian (parents). It's a really scary thought for me.