last link on the left › deadmonton

I was to return several times with Michael White to the spot where Liana's body was found. I wanted to hear straight from him how events unfolded the day his search party found Liana.

It was on one of these outings when I challenged White to a foot-race to my car which was parked about a block away.

I taunted White that I could easily beat him in a race, even though I was twice his age (adding that it's well-known that guys from Ontario are sissies and run like old women).

White immediately tore off towards my car. For a while he was ahead. But I caught up and passed him, reaching the car a good fifty feet ahead of White.

We were both out of breath.

There was something peculiar about the way Michael White ran.

He sure didn't run with a smooth stride. When he pulled up to the car I noticed he had a limp of some sort.

I asked him about it.

He said it's been like that for years, ever since an accident in the military when his toe was sliced open.

I was to return many times alone to the spot where Liana White's body was discovered.

The area has an ugly history. A number of years ago, about a block directly north of where Liana's body was found, police came across the body of another murder victim, a male.

Some have wondered why Liana's body wasn't hidden in the bushes and trees that were just a few feet away.

Wouldn't it have been simpler, they ask, for the person to carry Liana a few feet further and dump her in the woods? That would have spared them the trouble of finding leafy branches, cutting them and placing them over her body (if that actually happened).

Or, why wasn't her body simply dumped in a small meadow, around the corner, eighty feet directly west of the ditch.

That area was out of the way and much more hidden – compared to the top of a ditch.

The meadow, shaped like a cul-de-sac, was little more than a dumping ground. I found broken concrete blocks, old pieces of wood, a busted sofa, an old car seat, tangled wire and empty beer cans.

Not only was the area easily accessible, a set of well-worn tire tracks lined the inside of the meadow.

Trees had been cut to allow for a vehicle to pull into a sort of private stall, the kind of place one might park to have sex, paid or otherwise.

What really stood out were the fresh remains of a large deer. The animal had just been gutted. What the hunter didn't want was left behind on a large, blue plastic tarp.

I returned daily to check on the remains. Animal scavengers were making short work of what was left. Even the large bones were being torn off and dragged away.

I found the lower part of the deer's leg in a ditch on the east side of Poundmaker Road. A day or so later, even that disappeared.

In less than a week, the only part of the deer that remained was its skull. It had been dragged to a spot twenty feet away, near a crop of bushes. Save for a tiny sliver of red-something deep in one of the eye-sockets, the skull was picked clean.

The opening to the meadow was later closed with steel posts.

Carol Forbes with granddaughter Ashley

Carol Forbes says she vividly recalls what happened that Sunday afternoon in July 2005 when she found the body of her daughter-in-law.

She said police had directed them to search 142nd Street and Poundmaker Road.

Forbes remembers she was in the back of a car, travelling north, closely following her son's truck.

Her window was down.

Forbes, who lives on a farm, says it's not that hard to smell the dead body of an animal – especially if the carcass is rotting.

Forbes said she asked the driver of the car to stop.

She got out and ran towards the stench, first checking the east side of the ditch. Nothing there.

She then looked to her right and there she was: in full view, stretched out, nude, lying face down near the top of the ditch.

Liana was lying parallel to the road, her head facing north and her feet south.

Forbes said she knew immediately it was Liana because of a dolphin tattoo on her left ankle.

She stood over the body and had a good look at it.

Aside from an infested hole the size of a loonie on the left side of Liana's neck, there was little visible trauma to the body – other than a part of Liana's calf that had either been cut or gnawed away by an animal.

Forbes said some of the searchers also looked at Liana.

She said her son was first held back by his father, Steve. Michael then sat down on a log near the top of the road, shaking his head from side to side, sobbing and muttering.

"It's not her, it's not her," he cried.

<< previous chapter | main page | next chapter >>

Enquiries regarding material contained herein should be directed through the contact us link at the bottom of this page.
This material is protected by copyright. Further use of the material requires permission, in advance, before publication or broadcast. Linking on the internet directly to this page is permitted provided such practice adheres to conditions as outlined on the about this site page.

deadmonton - michael white - the untold story - 12