http://www.thestarphoenix.com/Police+search+tied+torture+case+neighbour/3049949/story.html
Police search tied to torture case: neighbour
Tells of moaning, shouts coming from apartment above his
By Heather Polischuk and Doyle Fox, Saskatchewan News Network; Regina Leader-Post May 20, 2010
The Regina Police Service remains silent on its investigation into the brutal assault of Dustin LaFortune -- including the apparent search of a Regina apartment this week -- but a resident of the building says the attacks may have happened in a suite above his.
Dann McKenzie lives at 2158 Halifax St., the Regina General Hospital-area building police reportedly searched on Tuesday. While he didn't see or hear the search take place, McKenzie said he's heard plenty more during the past couple of months.
"There were so many strange noises coming from that apartment," he said. "I slammed on the roof and told him to shut up a couple of times and he came down and wanted to fight me once or twice even. Scary stuff. I complained about it multiple times, even."
It was mid-March when McKenzie first met the man who'd moved into the apartment above his. But it wasn't until recently, when McKenzie saw a Facebook photo of the man LaFortune's family allege assaulted him, that McKenzie realized what might have been happening in the upstairs apartment.
"Everything starts clicking and all the tumblers and the little locks start fitting and you just realize that terrible things might have been going on right above me," he said.
McKenzie said he complained several times to his landlord, but not the police, when the noise continued over time.
"Initially it started off as a moan out here, every morning around nine or 10 in the morning, like a low, drawn-out moan," he said. "And I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. I thought maybe he had some creepy sexual habits. I mean, you're in an apartment. Sometimes noises get through.
"After that, I started hearing fighting and it was like one-sided fighting. I recognized (the upstairs neighbour's) voice and it was him screaming at the top of his voice, and then I heard thumping and stomping. The most twisted was I heard the yelling that went on when these hits were going on. I just heard things like, 'Open your eyes!' "
McKenzie said he never saw LaFortune, although he said he learned from the landlord that the upstairs apartment was rented out in LaFortune's name.
He added the noises stopped sometime in early April, soon after the landlord responded to McKenzie's complaints by reportedly talking to the upstairs resident.
A woman who answered a telephone call to the landlord's residence said they'd been told by police not to discuss the matter.
McKenzie said he most recently saw the upstairs neighbour walking his dog on Saturday during the day. The last McKenzie heard of him was late Saturday or early Sunday morning, when McKenzie last heard movement upstairs.
On Wednesday, Staff Sgt. Trent Stevely wouldn't talk about the investigation, including any police activity around the building.
Stevely also wouldn't confirm whether there was any sort of search warrant executed at any residence near the Regina General Hospital.
McKenzie said neighbours told him they saw the search happen and had watched as police officers carted out items apparently seized from the upstairs apartment.
On Wednesday, neighbours said officers have been investigating the alley that divided their residence and the apartment building. They added they saw officers looking through trash cans in the alley, but they did not see them seal off the area.
According to information from the Calgary Herald and the Winnipeg Free Press, among other sources, 26-year-old LaFortune received horrific injuries that he reportedly told police he suffered at the hands of his former roommate, with whom he worked and shared a home in Calgary.
Regina police have been investigating how LaFortune came to be injured after he was dropped off at the Regina General Hospital on April 16 by a man reportedly claiming to be his cousin.
At that time, LaFortune was said to weigh just 90 pounds. His tongue and bottom lip were cut, his face smashed and ribs broken, giving him the appearance of someone who'd been tortured, his mother said.
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