Canadian Career Colonel Charged With Double Homicide

Col. Williams laying a wreath for slain soldiers.

BELLEVILLE, Ont. - The Canadian military was rocked to its core Monday following the bombshell allegation that the colonel in command of the country's largest air force base had killed two women and sexually assaulted two others. Col. Russell Williams, a 46-year-old career member of the Canadian Forces, was charged Monday with first-degree murder in the deaths of Jessica Lloyd, 27, of Belleville, and Marie France Comeau, a 38-year-old corporal with CFB Trenton's 437 squadron who was killed last November.
"We're all shocked," said Lt. Annie Morin, a public affairs officer at CFB Trenton.
"The wing commander was a man who was much respected and very much liked, so this news came as a enormous shock for pretty much everybody on the base."

Williams was an elite pilot, a "shining bright star" of the military who rose through the ranks during his 23-year career to fly the prime minister and Governor General across Canada and overseas in one of four Canadian Forces Challenger jets. He is now also charged with sexual assault and forcible confinement in attacks on two other women in the region during home invasions last September.

Williams was appointed as the base commander of CFB Trenton last July. The high-profile military base is where troops depart from for Afghanistan and where repatriation ceremonies are held honouring slain soldiers. It is also a major search-and-rescue base and the main staging site for aid to Haiti.

On Monday, military brass expressed their condolences to the family's of the victims and shock at who police had named as the suspect.
"I never worked with him closely and didn't know him personally," said Maj.-Gen. Yvan Blondin, Commander of I Canadian Air Division and Williams's superior officer.
"As far as I know from what I've seen of his file, he was just a shining bright star. If you talk to people on the wing they would probably tell you that they admired the wing commander...Everybody is so amazed and horrified, we just do not know how to process this."

The charges raised questions about whether members of the military are required to undergo regular psychiatric testing as they assume higher command. Blondin said such testing would only be ordered if there were signs of a problem.
"All I do know is that when we pick people for jobs in command, they have been with us for the last 20-25 years. We observe them through their performance. They are usually extraordinary people. They rise above other members in the community at doing what we do and this is what Col. Williams has done. This is why he was picked to be wing commander," Blondin said.

The Chief of the Air Staff, Lt-Gen. Andre Deschamps, said in a statement that "the Air Force is fully supporting civilian authorities" in the case. It was only recently that police thought there could be a connection between the two murders . Police first looked at Williams as a suspect after he was pulled over on an area highway during roadside checks Feb. 4. The body of Lloyd, an administrator at a school bus company, was found early Monday in Tweed, about 30 minutes north of Trenton, 11 days after she was last heard from by her friends. Comeau, a corporal with CFB Trenton's 437 squadron, was found dead in her Brighton home on Nov. 25. She had been in the military for 12 years and had been at 437 squadron for six months before she was killed. Police have not released her cause of death. An autopsy is to be performed on Lloyd in Toronto.

Williams, who has been relieved of his duties, appeared in Belleville court bound by hand and leg shackles Monday afternoon, and wearing a blue prison-issue jumpsuit and booties. Emotions boiled over in the courtroom as a crowd of distraught-looking people, possibly, friends or family of the victims, caught sight of Williams. Obsenities were hurled his way as Williams was led from the court.

The Department of National Defence issued a statement noting Williams is considered innocent until proven guilty, but that in light of the "seriousness of the charges" an interim Wing Commander for 8 Wing Trenton will soon be appointed. A review will also be conducted by 1 Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg to determine the most appropriate action pending the outcome of his trial.
Police spent Monday searching Williams' property. Investigators said the only link to the two dead women they were prepared to identify was "geography." They wouldn't say whether the victims knew the suspect, and they said the investigation isn't over.
"We are certainly tracking the movements of where this man has been over the past several years, and we're continuing on with our investigation,"said a spokesman for the investigators."He may be responsible for other assaults or even homicides."