Debrief
The baldness gene is carried through the mother’s
side. That’s what I’ve always believed to be the scientific consensus.
Apparently baldness is actually a recessive gene amongst the bald men of the
world, their own bodies don’t want to pass it on. That’s not a fact that I
would think that Sheriff Andrew McKinnon would agree with.
The
walls of his office are peppered with photographs, some of other officers, some
of different vehicles (aquatic and land based) the man had once owned, but most
of the pictures seemed to be of the man’s family. The McKinnon Clan was
smiling, waving, and in a few cases what looked like singing right at me out of
their picture frames as I sat there. The man himself stood tall, about
six-three from my estimation, wore large rectangular brown glasses, and like
almost every pictured male figure in his office, he was completely bald.
“Well I’m glad you found the place at any rate.”
He said in a pleasant tone. I had just finished telling him about how my
phone’s navigation app sent me on a much longer journey than necessary after a
wrong turn off on the highway.
He
continued the conversation shaking his head,
“We could really use some help with this one.”
I pointed towards the Sheriff’s copy of the New
Haven County Journal.
“Not to be too harsh here Sir, I hardly think
you’re alone in that sentiment.”
He let out a long sigh and shook his head even
more fervently than before.
“It’s just not something we’re really prepared to
deal with here. The last death that was even treated as suspicious turned out
to be a suicide, and!” He put some gusto behind the word and. “And, it
was almost 20 years ago!”
“I understand that sir, that’s why my task force
exists in the first place. So much of Canada is spread out in these small rural
communities where crimes like this simply-” I corrected myself. “Statistically,
don’t happen often enough to warrant every department having a homicide division
at all. We simply exist to help pick up some of that slack.”
I really liked saying we like that. This
was both my first case with the task force, and first time really getting to
explain my new job to someone to whom it really mattered. I was considering delving into the various
logistics and regulations behind my position, but The Sheriff moved the
conversation along quickly. He was anxious. The stress of a high profile case
and the pressure from his own community must be getting to him.
"Well, like I said we could sure use a
little outside perspective." The man continued. "This community is
where I've lived my entire life, you see, same for most of my officers, and I
still find it hard believing that something like this could happen. I was there
when this poor girl was first baptised."He stopped. And removed his
glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It's a mess."
"So you know the family well then?" I
asked.
"I'd say so yes, they're very involved in
the community, always have been really. Her mother, Tanya organizes a lot of
our fundraisers." He pointed over to one of the pictures near the entrance
to his office of himself, standing in front of what looed to be some kind of
bake sale with the entire Sweeton family beside him and a tall slender man in a
grey polo shirt.
When I inquired about the man's identity the
sheriff told me that his name was Peter Kennedy, and that he was the former
senior minister at Graywolf Presbyterian Church.
"You know him as well?" I asked.
"Yes. I wouldn't say we were close, I'm not
a religious man myself, but his Church always made it a priority to help out
with all kinds of community fundraisers. He also was the one who started our
meals on wheels program, which, Jessica there, and about a dozen young people
are involved with. He was a good man, the community could really use him right
about now."
"What happened to him?"
"Happened? Oh nothing, no the reverend,
former reverend I should say, is fine and all. He's gone to live with his
daughter's family in Digby, he's going on about 78 now. But anyway, I'm getting
off topic."
I have a bit of a tendency to get bogged down in
the details of a situation myself, so I couldn't begrudge McKinnon's shift in
conversational topic. He was eager to get down to business, but as the conversation
moved on I found myself glancing back over at the picture on the wall. The
picture of the young girl, her family and the tall slender older man with his
arm around her shoulder.
Our talk lasted for about an
hour in total and the thing I took away from it most was the how the Sheriff
was under the impression he had no real credible suspects. The girl’s boyfriend
had been interrogated pretty thoroughly by the sounds of it, only to have
several of his teammates vouch for his whereabouts during the time of the
murder. The family had been interviewed as well. Mckinnon had not made much
reference to their interviews though, directing me to speak with officer O’Brian
who conducted the interview, if I needed more info. He seemed pretty dismissive
of the family angle, and I made a mental note to check that out further. Beyond
that, McKinnon’s men had questioned several of Jessica’s classmates, friends
and co-workers, and while they hadn’t exposed many motives or opportunity, a rudimentary
timeline had been established.
As
McKinnon described the timeline to me, I made my own notes.
- Attended church Sunday morning, multiple
witnesses. 9:30am-11am
- Followed by a lunch at home with parents. Left
parent’s house at 12:30pm
- Seems to have spent a majority of the afternoon
with boyfriend, Derrick Williams, witnesses spotted them in greenfield park,
nearby to Saint Andrew’s at 2:30pm, and the campus Library at 3:00pm.
- Williams testifies that they then went to see a movie,
the nearest theatre being the one in Yarmouth, an approximately 45 minute drive,
stopping for gas on the way. Then the pair returned and went for a late dinner
at 7:00pm at the local pub where Jessica worked during the week. Confirmed by
credit card reports from both Williams and Jessica.
- Williams contends that he dropped Jessica off at
her dorm room at 9pm, because Jessica had a test Monday that she wanted to
study for, this is confirmed by Jessica’s roommate.
- She was last seen by her roommate, Angela Boyd, at
about 11:00pm when miss Boyd believes she heard Jessica leave the room. Boyd
told the officers she did not know why Jessica had left, only that she heard
the door close, assumed Jessica had gone out for some fresh air. Must look into
this further.
- 7.5hr gap between that moment and the discovery
of the body at 6:30am, Monday November 20th.
- Mortician believes she was likely killed between
4am and 6am
I looked
up from my notes.
“Seven and a half hours? No one saw her?” I
asked.
“Not that we’ve found.” Andy McKinnon replied. “Now
you know what I know.”
Now the real work begins.
***
