Investigation Of Sex Killer Russell Williams Not Over Yet, Police Say

The criminal investigation of convicted sex killer Russell Williams is not over yet, as police sift through unsolved crimes in Canada and abroad to see if they’re linked to the former colonel, the lead detective in the case said Wednesday.

A team of investigators is still reviewing unsolved cases and working with police agencies in other countries to see if Williams, a former globetrotting military pilot, committed any other crimes.

“Our investigation never finished into Russell Williams once we got started,” said Det. Insp. Chris Nicholas of the Ontario Provincial Police.

“He’s obviously pleaded guilty to a number of offences, but we’re still looking into his past and his behaviour and offences, other offences, he may have committed.”

Nicholas wouldn’t comment on those investigations, or whether they happened before 2007, when Williams started breaking into homes in eastern Ontario.

But police “from all over” have contacted them, he said.

“Some of those are from outside of Canada, and we’re working with them to assist them in determining if Russell Williams has anything to do with their crimes,” Nicholas added.

“But then we’re also looking at possible offences that he may have committed here in Canada as well.”

Williams was convicted last month of first-degree murder in the brutal sex slayings of Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 38, of Brighton, Ont., and Jessica Lloyd, 27, of Belleville, Ont.

He also pleaded guilty to 82 fetish break-and-enters and thefts, as well as two sexual assaults.

Wednesday marked the first anniversary of Comeau’s horrific murder, which Williams recorded on videotape.

Both women were tied up and raped repeatedly before Williams killed them.

Nicholas also confirmed that a female police officer knocked on the door of Lloyd’s isolated rural home last January, hours before Williams broke in and attacked her.

The officer noticed Williams’s SUV parked in a field nearby at about 9:30 p.m. and drove up to Lloyd’s home to investigate. She looked around the property and knocked on the door, but nobody answered.

Williams was apparently hiding in the backyard at the time and broke into Lloyd’s home after the officer left. Lloyd was not home yet.

The officer is having a “hard time” coping with what happened to Lloyd, but her description of the SUV helped police catch her killer, Nicholas said.

“It allowed us in our investigative techniques to narrow the field of vehicles that we would have had to be looking for from about 20 down to three,” he said.

“So basically, her observations were key to us narrowing down the vehicle that Russ Williams was eventually caught in.”

The court heard during sentencing that three witnesses saw the SUV parked near Lloyd’s house, but it was not disclosed that one was a police officer.

“It was something that we shared with the Lloyd family prior to the commencement of the sentencing hearing,” Nicholas said.

“So it was nothing that the police were hiding from anybody.”

Williams, the former commander of Canada’s largest military airbase, is currently serving a life sentence in Kingston Penitentiary with no possibility of parole for 25 years.

The Canadian Forces stripped him of his rank after his conviction and burned his uniform — a move that some military veterans say is unprecedented.