last link on the left › deadmonton

Michael White's reaction | the last straw
a parole officer confronts Michael White
White makes medium security | civil suit settled

Michael White's reaction

After I completed the final draft of the story, I swung around to the Max and dropped off a copy for Michael White to read. Prisoners inside the federal facility don't have access to the internet.

Printed with single-line spacing, it was fifty pages long.

Whenever you want to give something to a prisoner at the Max it has to go through the V&C (Visits and Communications) guards. They look for contraband and anything security-related.

It was five days before Michael got the story. I'm thinking the guard was a slow reader.

In a later talk with White, he thanked me for the work I had done and said that he was very appreciative.

He said he was unaware a man called him a 'son of a bitch' that day out on Poundmaker Road. White hadn't heard the remark, and I had not previously shared it with him.

White also said a guard on his unit read the story from start to finish. According to White, when the guard gave it back to him he said 'now it makes sense' or words to that effect.

On a visit to the Max on May 9th, 2009 I asked Michael a question forwarded by the author of the Last Link web site. It was a question I had never thought of before.

Now that four years had passed since Liana was reported missing, what would Michael have done differently.

White said he would have taken the advice of his boss, Rob Hansen, who told him right after Liana disappeared to get himself a lawyer since a spouse of a missing person is always a suspect.

White said the idea of hiring a lawyer baffled him at the time because he said he had nothing to do with Liana's disappearance.

He would have still searched for Liana, because if he stayed at home he would have gone nuts.

In hindsight, he said he would have been a lot less trusting of the police.

And at trial, he would not have gone with a jury.

When Liana's body was found he said it would have been good if someone in their group had taken a photo to show what the scene actually looked like.

This was in reference to the claims of searchers that Liana's body was not covered in leafy branches as was shown in police photos entered as evidence at trial.

White also said his brother Bryan (a paramedic and firefighter in Ontario) had told him he wishes he took notes at the time. Bryan White was a member of the search party that found Liana. He was also not called as a witness.

White didn't bring it up, so I asked him the obvious question: what about the bloody rags and the garbage bags you recovered from the field?

He said he would still recover them because in spite of police saying they were evidence, they were not true evidence.

He again said he got the bloody rags because he feared that if anyone found them they'd worry that something bad could have happened to Liana.

As well, if he had to do this again he would have shown the rags to his mother.

White also said he's thought about this a lot: would Liana have gone through the same hell he went through if he had disappeared and had been killed?

The last straw

I was out to see Michael White at the Max shortly after I finally located Liana's grave in St. Albert. He was very excited when I told him I found it – his eyes lit up.

But when I told him what name was on the grave marker he didn't hide his feelings. He held back the tears and shook his head from side to side, not saying a word.

I was aware of the differences between Michael and his mother-in-law, Maureen Kelly, but I didn't bring any of this up.

Then he said, that's the final nail in the coffin. His eyes were wet, but he didn't cry.

And I said, do you mean, the last straw?

This conversation happened on a Saturday night at the Edmonton Institution ... in the visitor's room, at the table closest to the windows to your left as you walk in the door. There was no one around us.

I could tell it bothered him. We talked for about two hours, about all kinds of things.

Even though the subject had changed, he'd come back to how disappointed he was that Maureen had put down 'Kelly' on Liana's grave.

A parole officer confronts Michael White

As the story was being prepared for publication, I received word from White's civil lawyer, Marilyn Burns and White's mother, Carol Forbes, that White was confronted by his parole officer over whether White had been kicked out of the military.

Michael White later confirmed this. According to him, the parole officer demanded White show him proof he wasn't.

White was upset over this, saying the officer offered no proof ... only saying he had "read it somewhere."

White said he explained to the officer he had been court-martialed – but had been given an honourable discharge (his military papers indicate honourable release).

When the White story was first making news, some media outlets were "eager" to report that he had been booted out of the forces.

I guess there weren't many slow news days at the time, allowing for a retraction to get squeezed in.

White makes medium security

During my many visits with White at the Max I was always struck by how well he was treated by the guards.

Soon after White arrived there he became a Unit Rep (sort of a shop steward for cons). Jared Baker told me White helps calm things down on the unit where they're housed.

I noticed White got an unusually high number of visits to the trailers.

There are two trailers outside the main prison building, but they are within the complex. Prisoners get to sleep out there, usually with family members.

These are treasured visits and much sought-after. The guards appeared to be looking after White for him to get that many trailer visits and so often.

In June 2009, White told me his status had been reduced to "medium security" – which meant the door was open for him to transfer to a 'more relaxed' prison.

On July 4th he said he had been approved for a transfer to a medium security facility in Ontario, but didn't know when this would take place.

Then I got a call from White's parents – who got a call from a con at the Max – that White was taken from the Max in a van on July 9th and was flown east.

After a delay, he arrived at Fenbrook Institution (north of the town of Gravenhurst) on July 11th. The small plane ferrying him developed landing gear problems and White spent a night in a jail in Kitchener, Ontario.

That explained why White's civil lawyer, Marilyn Burns, hadn't heard from him in two weeks (prison transfers are always cloaked in secrecy for security reasons).

The Fenbrook facility has room for about 400 cons. The prison is fairly new, opening in 1998.

The best thing the prison has going for Michael White is its location – just several hours' drive away from his parents' place near Owen Sound.

When Carol Forbes called to confirm that her son had arrived, a prison official told her he couldn't reveal that information due to privacy concerns.

So she then asked to book a visit with Michael. The official obliged and promptly made the appointment.

Carol Forbes might have made a good homicide detective.

On July 26th I got a call from Carol. She and her husband, Larry Forbes, had spent over four hours visiting with Michael.

She said he looks well ... and Mike says there's NO comparison between Fenbrook and the Max. None.

Civil suit settled

Moving closer to his parents wasn't the only good news Michael White got in the summer of 2009.

A legal dispute over the sale of the house at 227 Warwick Crescent was finally settled, with Michael's daughter Ashley getting the proceeds.

In small ways, Michael White's life was finally starting to turn around.

White will be eligible for parole in 2022. He will then be 45 years old.

<< previous chapter | main page

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 - 38