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

[Gina20]

• Darren MacDonald

Jury hears how crime scene DNA, fingerprints were linked to Sweeney murder suspect

Jurors at the trial of Robert Steven Wright spent Thursday listening to DNA and fingerprint experts explain how they helped link Wright to the crime scene.

northernontario.ctvnews.ca

rbbm.

''DNA analysis can be used to create a genetic profile, Brutzki said, that comes out as a series of peaks on a graph. Modern techniques have evolved to the point that 15 unique points of a DNA profile can be identified, compared to just four in 1998 when the murder took place.

Brutzki said a cold case review of the Sweeney murder began in 2014, using the more advanced techniques.

She said her analysis determined that blood found on the teal jacket and white garden gloves almost certainly belonged to Sweeney – there was only a one in one quintillion chance that it belonged to another random person.

The jacket and gloves were found near the crime scene soon after Sweeney was killed.

Brutzki testified she also examined DNA taken from other areas of the jacket and gloves not stained with blood, including the inside of the pocket of the jacket and from inside the gloves.

Those tests uncovered DNA from three men and analysis showed a strong possibility it came from Wright, his brother and his father.''

Wow! What a difference in reporting.

Just reread...never mind!

 

[evilwise]

Wow! What a difference in reporting. So now the jacket and gloves belonged to Renee? This begs the question how the DNA from the Wright family males ended up on it.

The blood on the jacket belonged to Sweeney

 

[Gina20]

The blood on the jacket belonged to Sweeney

Yep.

 

[Gina20]

Expert explains how murder suspect’s DNA could have gotten on Sweeney’s fingernails​

Expert explains how murder suspect’s DNA could have gotten on Sweeney’s fingernails

A forensic biologist with the Centre of Forensic Sciences testified Friday that physical contact is the most likely way that Robert Steven Wright’s DNA was found on Renee Sweeney’s fingernails.

northernontario.ctvnews.ca

A forensic biologist with the Centre of Forensic Sciences testified Friday that physical contact is the most likely way that Robert Steven Wright’s DNA was found on Renee Sweeney’s fingernails.

However, Renata Dziak said that casual contact can’t be ruled out as the source of the DNA. She also said her conclusions do not imply anything about the nature of the physical contact.

 

[Gina20]

Forensic scientist says likely 'some degree of force' led to DNA left under Sweeney's fingernails​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/sudbury-sweeney-trial-day-eleven-1.6774859

 

[Gina20]

Ontario man testifies in his own defence at trial for 1998 Sudbury murder

The man on trial for the 1998 murder of Renee Sweeney takes the stand Monday afternoon to testify in his own defence.

northernontario.ctvnews.ca

​

 

[musicaljoke]

Ontario man testifies in his own defence at trial for 1998 Sudbury murder

The man on trial for the 1998 murder of Renee Sweeney takes the stand Monday afternoon to testify in his own defence.

northernontario.ctvnews.ca

​

I donno, Gina20. Could it be possible that someone else killed Renee? Or is Wright lying? If I stumbled upon a person who was in such terrible life-threatening distress, I might be frightened too. Maybe even too frightened to call 911, but probably not too frightened to get up close and personal and get blood on my coat and DNA under the victim's nails, and not too frightened to steal the cash and pick up a few select magazines and whatnot. Meh! He's lying.

jmo

 

[Gina20]

I donno, Gina20. Could it be possible that someone else killed Renee? Or is Wright lying? If I stumbled upon a person who was in such terrible life-threatening distress, I might be frightened too. Maybe even too frightened to call 911, but probably not too frightened to get up close and personal and get blood on my coat and DNA under the victim's nails, and not too frightened to steal the cash and pick up a few select magazines and whatnot. Meh! He's lying.

jmo

Should be interesting during the cross-examination tomorrow. How did that DNA get under her fingernails? The expert said it would have taken some force. Just getting started today.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/sudbury-sweeney-trial-day-twelve-1.6777513

"If you're reaching over, would you have any explanation why your prints would be underneath the cash box?"

Wright told the court he had no explanation, as he couldn't remember what he grabbed when he tried to stabilize himself.

"You're a boy scout, you're going to grab something from the top and not from below," Parsons said.

"Probably," Wright said. "Like I said I was steadying myself."

"You're not suggesting that your hand got underneath the cash box to steady yourself?"

"It's a possibility," Wright said.

 

[Gina20]

I donno, Gina20. Could it be possible that someone else killed Renee? Or is Wright lying? If I stumbled upon a person who was in such terrible life-threatening distress, I might be frightened too. Maybe even too frightened to call 911, but probably not too frightened to get up close and personal and get blood on my coat and DNA under the victim's nails, and not too frightened to steal the cash and pick up a few select magazines and whatnot. Meh! He's lying.

jmo

Should be interesting during the cross-examination tomorrow. How did that DNA get under her fingernails? The expert said it would have taken some force. Just getting started today.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/sudbury-sweeney-trial-day-twelve-1.6777513

"If you're reaching over, would you have any explanation why your prints would be underneath the cash box?"

Wright told the court he had no explanation, as he couldn't remember what he grabbed when he tried to stabilize himself.

"You're a boy scout, you're going to grab something from the top and not from below," Parsons said.

"Probably," Wright said. "Like I said I was steadying myself."

"You're not suggesting that your hand got underneath the cash box to steady yourself?"

"It's a possibility," Wright said.

 

[Gina20]

I donno, Gina20. Could it be possible that someone else killed Renee? Or is Wright lying? If I stumbled upon a person who was in such terrible life-threatening distress, I might be frightened too. Maybe even too frightened to call 911, but probably not too frightened to get up close and personal and get blood on my coat and DNA under the victim's nails, and not too frightened to steal the cash and pick up a few select magazines and whatnot. Meh! He's lying.

jmo

Also, he lived in Val Caron? I recall reading in one media outlet that he lived very close to the scene of the crime, on the same street? He says he lived in Val Caron at the time, and wore that jacket to school. How odd that not a single person in the high school recalled seeing that jacket at the time, as far as we know. Not one.

 

[Gina20]

Accused says he discovered Renee Sweeney's body, but he did not kill her

'At that point, I was just freaking out and I wanted to get out of there,' Robert Steven Wright tells Sudbury jury.

thesudburystar.com

He said he then returned to Lockerby Composite School and caught a bus home about 3 p.m.

Asked why he never told his parents about what had happened, Wright said he simply could not.

“I just wanted to distance myself from the whole thing and forget about it,” he said. “It was very traumatizing. I didn’t want to worry them.”

I guess 20 years wasn't long enough to reconsider. Well, the cat's out of the bag now.

 

[JuneBug67]

That jacket and those gloves make ZERO sense to me. It‘s Sudbury in January in 1998 and it was really cold that day. A windbreaker is just so hard to believe - and same with wearing gardening gloves. In addition to their winter uselessness, I mean what teenager would be caught dead.

He remembers coming out at the hospital (around 1.5 km from downtown) but backtracked all the way to Regent to get downtown (3 times the distance at least) with no coat or gloves.

His school (and his locker) were between the hospital and Regent. Just sayin.

 

[JuneBug67]

I donno, Gina20. Could it be possible that someone else killed Renee? Or is Wright lying? If I stumbled upon a person who was in such terrible life-threatening distress, I might be frightened too. Maybe even too frightened to call 911, but probably not too frightened to get up close and personal and get blood on my coat and DNA under the victim's nails, and not too frightened to steal the cash and pick up a few select magazines and whatnot. Meh! He's lying.

jmo

It reminds me of Mark Smich’s testimony in the Tim Bosma trial. It’s the exact “I was terrified!” story you would make up if you were going to make up a story that tried to account for the evidence and your behaviour.

 

[JuneBug67]

A lot of the reporting talked about him crying on the stand. The jury can assess credibility in a way that we can’t. I’m bearing that in mind, but that story is a doozy.

 

[musicaljoke]

That jacket and those gloves make ZERO sense to me. It‘s Sudbury in January in 1998 and it was really cold that day. A windbreaker is just so hard to believe - and same with wearing gardening gloves. In addition to their winter uselessness, I mean what teenager would be caught dead.

He remembers coming out at the hospital (around 1.5 km from downtown) but backtracked all the way to Regent to get downtown (3 times the distance at least) with no coat or gloves.

His school (and his locker) were between the hospital and Regent. Just sayin.

Yeah, it was -14 C when he set out for school that morning, and snowing. There's no way he did that much walking in his T-shirt.

Hourly Data Report for January 27, 1998 - Climate - Environment and Climate Change Canada

climate, past weather

climate.weather.gc.ca

 

[JerseyGirl]

Ontario man testifies in his own defence at trial for 1998 Sudbury murder

The man on trial for the 1998 murder of Renee Sweeney takes the stand Monday afternoon to testify in his own defence.

northernontario.ctvnews.ca

 

[Gina20]

It woul

Yeah, it was -14 C when he set out for school that morning, and snowing. There's no way he did that much walking in his T-shirt.

Hourly Data Report for January 27, 1998 - Climate - Environment and Climate Change Canada

climate, past weather

climate.weather.gc.ca

It is strange, to say the least, that nobody noticed a young man running and walking through the streets of Sudbury on a very cold winter day in a T-shirt. This would stand out like a sore thumb, especially given the news reports of the murder and a jacket and gloves found discarded near the scene of the crime.

Assuming that the 3 p.m. bus was a school bus, it would also be very strange that nobody -- not the driver, not the other students -- put two and two together once the news broke. Omigosh, someone discarded a jacket and gloves at the scene of a murder near the school, and student X rode the bus in a T-shirt today/yesterday, despite very cold temperatures that could cause frostbite/exposure. Who's going to remember that now, 25 years on?

 

[Gina20]

Crown asks Steven Wright how his DNA was found under Sweeney's fingernails​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/sudbury-sweeney-trial-day-thirteen-1.6778425

 

[Gina20]

Crown tries to poke holes in suspect’s version of events day of Sudbury murder

A day after admitting he was in the Sudbury video store the morning Renee Sweeney was murdered, Robert Steven Wright was grilled by the Crown attorney on the specifics of his actions after he discovered the victim’s body.

northernontario.ctvnews.ca

 

[Gina20]

If you owned a jacket sold only at Mervyn's stores in California, and one in the same color and style with a diaper pin inside the chest area showed up on the news as a bloodied item discarded near a murder scene in your Canadian city, what would you do? Would you look for it, or ask family members if they'd seen it recently? Or would you think it's perfectly normal for other people in Sudbury to own jackets in the same color and style sold only at Mervyn's stores in California between 1994 and 1995?

Would you be the least bit curious if a composite sketch of a person suspected of murder even vaguely resembled someone you know? Would a bloody jacket plus a sketch make you curious?

Some of us are more curious than others. Some of us might even submit our own DNA to a genetic genealogy site out of curiousity. But you know what they say about curiosity. I guess we never know what we'll do until something happens in real life. We hardly know what we're capable of, let alone others.