GUILTY Canada - Diane Werendowicz, 23, raped & murdered, Hamilton, Ont, June 1981

redheart

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Does anybody else follow this story? It's been on my radar for awhile now. I sure hope they put him away this time.

Susan Clairmont has written quite a bit about this story, and her articles are pretty in depth.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/2...werendowicz-murder-compelled-susan-clairmont/


Diane was murdered on June 19, 1981. I moved to Hamilton and began working at The Spectator in the autumn of 1997, just as a police task force was struck to find Diane’s killer.

Diane, a pretty nursing assistant, was three days shy of her 24th birthday the night she died. She had been out at Malarkey’s bar in Stoney Creek with some girlfriends and left around midnight, alone, for the short walk home.

She never made it.

Her partially nude body was found a day later in a creek by children playing in the ravine. She would have been able to see her own apartment building as she took her last breaths.

I was just a few years older than Diane when I wrote my first story about her. I have written many more since.

But what intrigued me most of all about this case, was Diane.

She never had justice.

In the eyes of the law, Diane’s murder remains unsolved.

Badgerow was convicted at his first trial, but two juries after that could not come to a unanimous decision, resulting in mistrials. In September 2012 the first-degree murder charge against him was stayed. That means he is still an innocent man. A free man.

Badgerow and his lawyers will tell you that for him, justice has been served.

I was there in court the day the charge was stayed. I interviewed Badgerow. We have always had a cordial relationship, beginning in 2009 when I showed up at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre hours after he’d been granted an appeal.

After the stay was handed down, I was in my editor’s office talking about an idea I’d had for a long time.

I wanted to write the story of Diane’s murder. The whole story. Everything three sets of jurors have and haven’t known over the years. I wanted to piece together a narrative that began long ago in a way that would make readers care now. I wanted to talk to those who had never talked before.

When I got back to my desk my phone rang.

It was Debbie Robertson calling. The woman Badgerow was alleged to have stabbed with a screwdriver, just a few weeks after Diane’s murder. From her hospital bed, Debbie had given detectives Badgerow’s name. But it took 17 years for them to charge him with her attempted murder. And to connect him to Diane.

Debbie – whom I had never spoken to -- was calling because she wanted to tell her story.

What the Badgerow juries were never told, including Debbie Robertson's brutal assault: http://metronews.ca/news/hamilton/361780/what-the-badgerow-juries-were-never-told/

Badgerow is ordered to stand trial for the fourth time: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4...ith-call-for-fourth-trial-in-hamilton-murder/

Accused killer is out on bail: http://www.londoncommunitynews.com/...gerow-out-on-bail-before-fourth-murder-trial/

Badgerow and his defense team split: http://www.ourwindsor.ca/news-story/4834000-clairmont-badgerow-and-defence-team-split/

Supreme Court of Canada confirms Badgerow must stand for fourth trial. Court date this month (December 2014) to set a date for pretrial conference: http://www.therecord.com/news-story...urth-trial-on-murder-charge-a-canadian-first/

And here are a couple of chapters from Susan Clairmont's e-book: http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2...adgerow_can_face_4th_trial_ebook_excerpt.html

and

http://www.ourwindsor.ca/news-story...lairmont-s-unsolved-the-robert-badgerow-case/
 
Quite the nasty piece of work, imo. any chance he is guilty of any other crimes in the 80's?


http://www.citynews.ca/2014/12/22/h...th-trial-in-the-1981-murder-of-a-young-woman/
rbbm.

"Court documents have noted that 23-year-old Werendowicz had worked as a nursing assistant at the McMaster University Medical Centre. In June 1981, she and another woman went to a bar in Stoney Creek, in the Hamilton area, after work and had a few beers. She left the bar alone around midnight to walk to her home, which was about 15 minutes away.

On her way home, court documents have said Werendowicz was dragged into a ravine, sexually assaulted, strangled, dumped in a creek and drowned. When her body was found later that day a tire covered her head and shoulders. When it was lifted, it was discovered she had been strangled, with the strap of her purse wound around her neck.

Badgerow, who had been arrested in 1981 in connection with the “brutal assault” of a different young woman in the same area, was identified as a suspect in Werendowicz’s killing in the late 1990s."
 
http://metronews.ca/news/hamilton/361780/what-the-badgerow-juries-were-never-told/

From the above link:
The arrest came 10 months after police formed the Ravine Task Force to reinvestigate 10 linked cases of attacks on women in east Hamilton and Stoney Creek dating back to the early 1980s.

Badgerow was only charged in two of the crimes, but police said they were confident they had nabbed the so-called Ravine Rapist.



Dotr, I would not be surprised at all if he was responsible for more attacks. I wonder if there was any DNA collected in these other attacks.
 
Thank you for starting this thread redheart and sharing the ebook. I don't recall this case at all but will be following along now.
 
http://www.thespec.com/news-story/6...adgerow-s-fourth-trial-pushed-back-next-year/

Robert Badgerow's fourth trial next year for first-degree murder in the death of a nursing assistant has been pushed back two weeks.

Badgerow's lengthy trial was set to begin on Sept. 6, 2016. But at Friday's criminal assignment court, the date was moved to Sept. 19 next year. The trial is expected to last three to four months.
 
From Susan Clairmont's Twitter, April 18th, 2016:

Susan Clairmont ‏@susanclairmont 8m8 minutes ago
Conveniently my next big murder trial - Robert Badgerow - is in pretrial motions in the courtroom next door to #Bosma.

https://twitter.com/susanclairmont
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/badgerow-1.3764070
[h=1]Robert Badgerow to stand trial on same murder charge for 4th time Monday[/h]
[h=3]Former steelworker's precedent-setting 4th trial begins with jury selection Sept. 19[/h] By Adam Carter, CBC News Posted: Sep 17, 2016
Canadian history will be made on Monday as the fourth trial begins of a Hamilton man charged with first-degree murder in the 1981 killing of a nursing assistant.
Diane Werendowicz was dragged into a ravine, allegedly sexually assaulted, strangled and dumped in a creek in the Hamilton area in 1981.
'The case in many historic prosecutions is the witnesses are unavailable or their memories have faded.'
- Daniel Brown, criminal lawyer​
Thirty-five years later, former steelworker Robert Badgerow's precedent-setting fourth trial will begin with jury selection on Sept. 19.
He is the first person in Canada to be tried on the same murder charge four times — something Toronto criminal lawyer Daniel Brown says is quite exceptional.
 
http://www.thespec.com/news-story/6...th-a-fourth-trial-and-the-pursuit-of-justice/
attachment.php

[h=2]Diane Werendowicz[/h] Hamilton Spectator file photo
[h=1]Badgerow case: A phone booth, a fourth trial and the pursuit of justice[/h] [h=2]For the first time, a jury will hear new evidence in the Robert Badgerow case about the origins of a mysterious call in the days after Diane Werendowicz’s 1981 murder[/h]
By Susan Clairmont

This latest jury, which will be chosen in a Kitchener courtroom beginning Sept. 19, will hear evidence no other Badgerow jury has been allowed to hear. They will hear that a 911 call from a man with very specific details about the murder scene may have been placed from a phone booth at Dofasco, metres away from where Badgerow was working a shift.

But this is also a story about science. This was a cold case pried open after 17 years by DNA from autopsy samples that were gathering dust in vials and envelopes.
It is also the story of Badgerow himself, who admits to having anonymous sex with a pretty young woman in the back seat of his car one summer night in 1981. He swore on a courtroom Bible that she left him — alive and well — to make the short walk home.
It is the story, too, of many interlocking lives, brought together in unexpected ways: a convicted serial rapist who has been suggested as the real killer; Badgerow's one-time brother-in-law who became a Hamilton homicide detective; a law student articling in the Crown's office during Badgerow's first trial who would go on to be his prosecutor at three more trials; a young Hamilton Spectator reporter who covered the murder — his first — and would be called to testify decades later.

In 2014, a unanimous decision from the court of appeal said that "the Crown has not had a full and complete opportunity to prove its case due to the exclusion of the 911-trace evidence."

Now the jury will hear that on June 22, 1981, police and Bell held the phone line open and traced the anonymous 911 call. The Crown will attempt to prove the trace led to a phone booth outside Gate 6 at Dofasco.
Badgerow was working a shift at the time the 911 call was made. His work station was 30 metres away from the phone booth.
The court of appeal has decided to allow this latest jury to hear all the evidence and decide for themselves if the call was made from the Gate 6 phone booth and if it was Badgerow's voice.
 

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This is speculation.

I was sleuthing due to the RB case being brought to retrial.One article said he is suspected in other cases. I saw on his LinkedIn site that he has been at Mohawk College for several years up to 2015. He has some computer skills listed. AG (Audrey Gleave) apparently also attended Mohawk in her retirement, taking computer courses. I hope LE checked to see if they were in any classes together.

He was not in prison at the time of her death. He was in prison from Dec 1, 1998 until June 14, 2010(I believe) (SC document says bail in July 2009) and his next case wasn't until September 12, 2011. Since the reports point to her knowing the perp, perhaps RB knew her from courses at Mohawk. - again speculation.

I have posted this also on the AG thread. Since writing this, I did more research and read a police profile that described a young man with mother/woman anger issues type of thing...Not sure if he says young man because of the strength. I'd think RB, having been in prison, would have enough anger and strength to do such a thing.

At the time, RB would have been 52.
 
Now that the jury has been selected, I can comment that I was a candidate for the jury. Went through the initial process this week. Saw the perp up close and personal. I wasn't interested in this case, but may follow it now. Susan Clairmont will be tweeting. Must be tough given there have been 2 hung juries in the past.
 
Is the trial open to the public? I can attend if so!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I am almost certain it is. I pulled up the court docket for Monday and didn't see it but I'm going to go! I live close by so I don't mind at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I am almost certain it is. I pulled up the court docket for Monday and didn't see it but I'm going to go! I live close by so I don't mind at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The judge had said 10 am. it took me 20 min to get through security the other day but that was with 100 in line for the selection.
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/badgerow-1.3778244
[h=1]Robert Badgerow's 4th murder trial adjourns on 1st day for 'legal issue'[/h]
The first day of former Hamilton steelworker Robert Badgerow's precedent-setting fourth trial on the same murder charge ended as soon as it began on Monday.

Justice Patrick Flynn thanked the jury after they were called in around 10:30 a.m. at Superior Court in Kitchener, Ont., but then told them they would be excused until Tuesday morning.
"
As it happens, while you were in your jury room, a legal issue has arisen, which we have to deal with in your absence," Flynn said, adding that this will happen from time to time during the trial.

'This is something we couldn't have anticipated.'
- Justice Patrick Flynn
 
The reason I tried to start a new thread was to put it under current trials.

This thread is 2 yrs old. Is that how it's done? Just add on?

I'd like a quick link to it, how do I quickly find it?
 
The reason I tried to start a new thread was to put it under current trials.

This thread is 2 yrs old. Is that how it's done? Just add on?

I'd like a quick link to it, how do I quickly find it?

I'm not sure on the first part.. but to quickly find your favorite threads, go up to the top of the thread page (any page I believe), below the title of the thread, and click on 'thread tools'... and then 'subscribe to thread'.. then later when you want to find your fav threads, to up to the top of the forum, under the WS heading, and click on 'quick links'.. and I forget what you click on next, probably 'subscribed threads' or something close.
 
The reason I tried to start a new thread was to put it under current trials.

This thread is 2 yrs old. Is that how it's done? Just add on?

I'd like a quick link to it, how do I quickly find it?

When i post in a new/old thread, it automatically adds to my subscribed threads.
At the top of any page, it says Quick links, i click that, it shows " subscribed threads" clicking that, brings me to all the threads i have previously posted on.
 

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