Artical two

The Canadian Press A typewritten letter accompanied the explosive-laden flashlight that killed Ontario...

.... resident Wayne Greavette in 1996. Ontario Police have been stumped by the case.

Flashlight murder probed on Internet

“We need justice”: Site created by widow of man killed by bomb. PUSLINCH, ONT. - Sitting on a couch in his farmhouse, Wayne Greavette switched on a flashlight that had just been mailed to him with a typewritten note: “May you never have to buy another flashlight” it read. The senders wish came true. The flashlight secretly packed with plastic explosives, detonated, killing Mr. Greaveete instantly. The slaying, five years ago this week, remains unsolved despite reward offers and the clues culled from the note that survived the powerful blast. The family of Mr. Gravette has launched a Website, www.unsolvedmurders.ca, in a bid to shake loose new information in this cold case and other unsolved murders that may be haunting families of other victims. Somewhere out there, a murder runs free, ready to enjoy another Christmas when he has destroyed ours forever, “said Mr. Greavette wife, Diane, who started this website this month. “it is so hard to go on with life. We need justice and closure.” “The reason for the site is to have a place where people may go, read up on the cases and send a lead if there is one. We hope to reach so many others out there who are victims of crime.... that have not yet had an arrest in their case. We offer victims a chance to post their unsolved case here, giving their case as well as ours the publicity it needs.” There has been little movement in the search for Mr. Greavetts killer. Mr. Greavette, 42 was a mechanic and machinist wth a strong entrepreneurial streak. He took his labourer’s skills and was turning them into small business opportunities. when he bought the sprawling 40-hectare parcel of land near Guelph, 6 months before his murder, he set up his own machine shop in a farm building, planned to tend the abandoned apple orchard and had strted bottling and selling water from an artesian well on the land.

Shortly before 1 p.m. on Dec. 12, 1996 Mr. Greavette sat down to open a package addressed to him that had been delivered that day by Canada Post. With him were his wife, son and brother. Inside the package was a cardboard cask of D’Or, a low cost Ontario wine, which had been emptied of liquid and filled, instead, with a strange note and a lantern style flashlight. Typed at the top of the note was Mr. Greavette’s name. “My partners and I are opening a new business sometime in the New Year called Acton Home Products and would be very interested in having you give us a price on rebuilding some equipment,” the note says, all in capital letters. The author appears to have known Mr. Greavette and his business well, as the letter names two people, one or them Mr. Greavette’s delivery man, as a references, likely in a bid to add credibility to the letter’s innocence. The note was signed with a false name. Below that name is a postscript. “P.S.: Didn’t realized you had moved. Had some trouble finding you. Have a Merry Christmas and may you never have to buy another flashlight” Police later said the killer has a “twisted, morbid sence og humour,” because of that remark. While Mr. Greavette read the note, his 21-year-old son, Justin, picked up the large Duracell Floating Lantern flashlight. Hidden inside were tightly packed plastic explosives and a blasting cap, surrounded by galvanized roofing nails designed to maximize the bomb’s damage. Justin flicked the flashlight on and nothing happened. Mr. Greavette put don the note and took it from him, trying the switch himself. It triggered an explosion that killed him and injured his son. Police released an edited copy of the note, asking the public to look at it closely. It had been typed with a Smith-Corona typewriter in a rare font with a clear defect - each time the typewriter’s hammer struck a period onto the page, a distinct slash mark appeared after it. A copy of the letter is included on Ms. Greavette’s web site. “The more it is seen in the public eye, the better chance we have in getting some sort of lead,” she said. Ms. Greavette also hopes the passage of time will make t easier for a witness to come forward. “If you were a friend of Wayne’s and know anything at all that could help, but were too afraid to talk back then, here is your chance,” she writes on the site. “Your memory of a crucial detail could lead to an arrest of the person or persons responsible for one of these murders.” Ms. Greavette wants other unsolved murder cases to be featured on the site, at the request of of victims’ families. The motto of the website, and a related site www.unsolvedcrimes.ca, is: “Solving crime is everyone’s duty.” Investigators with the Ontario Provincial Police welcome the family’s initiative. “This particular case has been very frustrating both to the family and to the police,” said Detective-Inspector Mike Coughlin, case manager of the probe. “Most of the information available in the file has been made public in an effort to generate information or calls to assist in the resolution of it. So , in this particular case, I am not troubled by (the family’s Website,” he said. “We are investigation anything and everything, both in his personal and professional life,” said Det.-Insp. Coughlin. There are reposts that Mr. Greavette, who owned Harley-Davidson and Yamaha motorcycles, had refused an offer to join a now-defunct outlaw motorcycle gang based in Guelph, called the Royal City Riders, shortlt before his death. Police dismiss speculation that he was killed as a message to others not to stand up to the gang. “We found no association under any circumstances whatsoever to any biker organization,” said Det.-Insp. Coughlin. “Every once in a while we get a little tip or some information. You follow it up but there has not been anything unique or unknown discovered (in years),” he said.

Wayne’s family deserves Justice and Closure, and we need yor help to give them that.

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