Evidence Really Can Lie

Beautiful pictures and calming music, Enya has the ability to soothe. The only issue is that sometimes one cannot be soothed.




The sloppiness of the Delta police investigation into the murders of Doris Leatherbarrow and Sharon Huenemann, which led to the arrest and convicton of the 3 teenage boys, is one of those things that will not let one be soothed. It was absolutely dreadful! The police coerced witnesses, made up evidence, misplaced evidence, lost evidence, hid evidence and mishandled the entire case.

The investigation of this terrible crime began as most do with the interviewing of family and neighbours.

In the police reports of the follow-up, Ralph Huenemann did not appear to be upset or surprised with the news brought to him by Saanich police officers. It had been noted that he showed "absolutely no remorse and did not appear to be upset with the news we brought." He was co-operative, offering to help by attending at Delta to speak to the police there and assist them in any way he could. Darren, however, was very upset. It is noted that he showed the "usual reactions and was very upset. "

On October 6, 1990, Saanich police also interviewed Amanda Cousins at her home in Victoria. Other than a two hour discrepancy between when she said that Ralph got home and when Ralph said that he got home, Amanda's story corroborated the story that Darren would tell about where he was that night. Amanda says that Darren picked her up about six-thirty, and that Ralph came home about 7 or 7:15. Ralph said that Darren and Amanda were there when he got home about 5 p.m.

Amanda told about picking up Derik and David downtown about 8 pm and driving around for a while, both in the downtown area, and in areas where Darren's parents were looking to buy a house. She tells of bringing David to Derik's house to pick up his bike, then driving around a while longer with Derik until around 10pm.

On October 6, 1990, in Delta, Darren Huenemann also gave a statement to police. This statement bears mostly on items of value which were or should have been in the house at the time. In it he also gave details of his mother's and his grandmother's wills as he knew them. This statement was hand written by detective Bill Jackson in Delta.

On October 7, the police continued investigating through the interviewing of neighbours. Two boys, the May boys who lived across the street, gave statements to the police describing two young men they had seen wandering around apparently lost on the evening of October 5, at around 6:30 pm. The descriptions which they gave were not closey linked to Derik and David, and actually had many features not consistent with the appearance of either of them. Both described men about 6 feet tall and white, about 20 or 21 years old. Greg May said that both men wore dark leather jackets. Neither Derik or David are that height. Neither could have passed for 20 or older. Derik had been asked for proof of age more than once at a movie theater showing a movie restricted to 17 or over. Neither Derik or Dave was wearing a leather jacket. At the time, Derik did not own a leather jacket, his jacket was a tan and white cotton one. I don't know about David Muir as I did not see him often. The only jacket I remember seeing him wearing was a jean jacket.

Charles Smith stated that he had seen one of the ladies inside the white car belonging to Mrs. Leatherbarrow at around 7:30 that Friday evening while he was closing his curtains. He thought that it had been Sharon Huenemann. He lived in a corner house across from the Leatherbarrow residence and had a clear view of the driveway and front of the house from his kitchen.

Two taxi drivers described passengers that they had picked up in Tsawwassen. One described a pair of young men that had called for a taxi from the ferry terminal around 5 p.m., and the other described two men he picked up at the mall and took to the ferry terminal around 6:30 or 6:45. The descriptions were sketchy, and inconclusive.

Photo lineups with the May boys and the taxi drivers were not done until November 7, quite a length of time later. None of the identifications were for certain. All of the photos that were pointed out were described as "sort of looks like one", or "someone like him", or one had a similar haircut, or other similar phrasing. Many people would not take such sketchy possibilities as certain and irrefutable evidence, but it appears that Delta police officers do.

Derik was interviewed at our home on October 16. At that time, he told police of his whereabouts and the whereabouts of Darren as he knew them. Derik described the evening as it went quite uneventfully in Victoria. This statement corroborated an earlier one given by Amanda Cousins, and again was corroborated by the statement of Amanda Cousins dated November 16, 1990, (and dated again as typed January 9, 1990).

In yet another statement a half hour later that same evening, Amanda Cousins again says that the boys, Derik and David were picked up downtown by her and Darren at about 8:30 p.m. on October 5. One might question why two statements were taken about a half hour apart by the police.

The way that Derik was interviewed on October 16, 1990, upset some neighborhood children, especially a seven year old girl who had been playing with Derik and Dawn (my younger daughter) and a couple of other young children in the back yard. I complained to the Saanich Police about the handling of the interview.

On November 6, 1990, Sgt. Gordon Tregear, representing the Saanich police, and Detective Wiliam Jackson, representing the Delta police, came to our house to speak to Dave (my husband) and I about the method used to question Derik. In answer to the complaint I had made, they said that it was normal procedure to put someone in the car to talk to him and not to go into the house as they had been invited to do by Derik. Apparently, it was also normal procedure to question children without at least one of the parents being present. During the hour or so that they were here, the police officers spent very little time explaining the events upon which the complaint was based. Most of this time was spent telling us all about the crime scene, all the gory details of the murders and the messing up of the house. Everything from the size of the footprints found in the house to the violence of the scene. They told us about the use of common kitchen rubber gloves, kitchen knives to cut the throats of the victims, the size 10 men's tennis shoe footprint that was clear enough to photograph, both women had been hit with a bar of some sort, money was taken, traveler’s cheques were taken, no jewelry was taken, purses were dumped out, the key once hidden outside was found inside, there were four pieces of lasagna, there were beets in a pot on the stove, there were beans in another pot on the stove, and the room was very hot, making time of death difficult to determine. They said that there was one little detail that they were keeping secret in order to catch the criminal. We found out what that one was a couple of days later from Ralph Huenemann. Ralph told us about the cloths over their faces. Quite a bit of effort was put into trying to convince me to talk to Darren about taking a lie detector test to prove his innocence.

By November 16, it had become obvious that the police investigation was centering only on the three boys and not in any other direction. The boys had noticed that they were being followed everywhere. Derik had been approached at work and brutally questioned about Darren and his relationship with him. He had been accused at work and frightened on more than one occasion. Both phone lines were tapped. Neighbours phoned in to the Saanich police often to complain about strange cars with people not belonging to the neighborhood sitting in them staying for long periods of time in the area. One of Dawn's friends, Stacey, had dropped by to see her, but no one was at home that afternoon. On her way home, she stopped by a brown car parked across the street and down the block a ways and told the two undercover officers sitting in the car that they could go for coffee and doughnuts because no one was home. I really had become a joke with all the kids!

Once it seemed that the investigation was stalling on the boys, Ralph Huenemann suggested that they should be represented by legal counsel. He researched a few firms, then hired the firm of Considine and Lawler. Considine was representing Darren, Lawler was to represent Derik. Ralph was paying the bills for this legal advice. We were invited over to the Huenemann residence at Ten Mile Point to meet with Lawler in November. His advice to us was to remain calm, keeping his phone number handy just in case, and to refuse to take any lie detector tests.

Something very odd happened when we arrived at the Huenemann house to meet Ralph for the first time. While we were waiting for the lawyer, Ralph talked to us for a while about how he had been through this before. His first wife, Joanne, had been murdered and at that time he had been a suspect in her death. He told us that is why he wanted to make sure that the boys both had representation. This had also been offered to the Muirs for David, but they had decided to go with another firm in town.

Later, we discovered that Joanne's death was listed by police as a death from exposure caused in part by use of drugs and alcohol. Her body had been found at a picnic table in a campground in Manning Park. We spoke to the park ranger who had found the body. "It was the strangest thing. She looked like something had struck her and thrown her straight back from the bench." He had never forgotten the way she looked. Fear was etched on her face. Her book was lying open on the table. Her coffee mug, only partly emptied, was still on the table too.

Police reports did not suggest murder.

But Ralph Huenemann had told us that both his wives had been murdered, first Joanne, then Sharon.

Go to our website http://www.canadianinjustice.com to learn more about this very strange set of events.

Now I need to go listen to Enya again so I will be able to sleep tonight.

Coach Elouise
604-794-3218
Skype elouise.lord
Email: lordelouise@gmail.com
rascal60@shaw.ca

I will be back with more on Monday!