Misty Lynn Ward, 27, was discovered stabbed and dismembered on December 31st, 2011.
Ward was Edmonton's 47th homicide victim of the year.
Joshua James Houle, 27, was charged with second-degree murder, indignity to a human body, and two counts of breach of recognizance.
charge laid |
crime scene described |
who was Josh Houle?
first court appearance |
memorial |
victim identified - charges added
dismemberment |
funeral held |
second court appearance
Fifteen hours into the last day of Edmonton's bloodiest year, homicide detectives were already working their third case of the day.
The body of 35-year-old Jamie Francis Vickers had been found in a Mill Woods home less than 12 hours before. At about 12:30 p.m., a suspicious fire death that claimed the life of 60-year-old Rukmani Prasad in the city's northeast also claimed their attention.
And at about 3:24 p.m. on December 31st, 2011, police were called to the Edge on Jasper condominium building at 8306 Jasper Avenue.
Inside a second-floor suite they found a deceased woman in her 20s. They also found a man of about the same age and took him into custody.
Soon forensics staff arrived and worked the scene well into the night. The familiar large white crime scene truck was absent (it had likely already logged too much mileage for the day) – see images »
Forensics staff returned the next morning ...
... with daylight revealing blood on the apartment's veranda-style door.
Full details of exactly what took place inside the suite took several days to emerge ... and they made the city's last confirmed murder of the year turn out to be the most horrific.
Despite the holiday, police held a news conference on New Year's Day. With three cases on the go, homicide detectives were likely prompted to ease the fears of citizens.
After bringing media up to speed on the Vickers and Prasad matters, homicide Staff Sgt. Bill Clark provided details of the city's latest murder in slow, measured and understated terms.
"A landlord had noticed water running into a storage room underneath a suite in that building," Clark said, referring to the Jasper Avenue condo complex.
"Based on where the water was coming from, the landlord checked the suite and found a large amount of blood. He then immediately closed the door and contacted police.
"Downtown division members went there, they found a female, deceased, inside the residence ... obvious signs of trauma to the female ... and they arrested a male inside that residence at the time," Clark said.
"Definitely there was a lot of blood at that scene, and there's no doubt that, in fact, it was quite gruesome."
The man would be charged with second-degree murder, Clark said, adding that police wouldn't be releasing his name until after a bail hearing, tentatively set for January 3rd, was held.
Officers were still working to identify the woman who was believed to be 27 years old. Then police would notify her next of kin before making known her identity, Clark said.
Police said the man lived in the condo suite but the woman did not. However, the two were not strangers.
"Our indications are that they did know each other," Clark said.
With three fresh files opened in less than 24 hours, police resources – already under strain – faced further pressures – read more »
Detectives still had 16 cases out of 2011's new total of 47 to solve, in addition to one brought forward from 2010 (as well as over 100 cold cases going back decades.
The investigation into the death of 19-year-old Kerry Takkiruq, found dead March 31st on the Riverside Golf Course, had been put on hold pending further developments, while the wait was still on for toxicology tests to determine the case of 40-year-old Michael Allen Haley, found dead on December 27th in an Inglewood apartment building.
The latest batch of cases meant even further carving up of the fixed police-resource pie.
"As you can imagine, with three investigations, we've had to split the homicide unit up and pretty well everyone that's in town, if they're not on a holiday through the Christmas break, is working," Clark said.
"In addition, we've used resources from north division, detectives from there and downtown division detectives to assist in all these investigations."
Police were already working their first case of 2011 when the year was just three hours old after 23-year-old Mohamud Mohamed Jama was fatally shot inside the crowded Papyrus Lounge on 107th Avenue.
So for homicide detectives at the end of the first day of 2012, things already looked promising.
"We've started off the New Year so far, so good, nothing's come in since midnight," Clark said with a tinge of gallows humour.
"Last year ... I think everyone agrees it's an anomaly. Hopefully we don't have this many, or even close to as many," he hoped.
"There's no real rhyme or reason as to why we had that many. Nothing we can pinpoint as in obvious gang problems or anything like that. It's just one of those years."
In addition, the sudden weekend work load also held up autopsy results.
"Due to the number of incidents in the last little while, we've had some scheduling issues," Acting Staff Sgt. Dan Collins said.
Charge laid
On January 2nd, 2012, police announced that 27-year-old Joshua James Houle had been charged with second-degree murder.
An autopsy on the deceased woman was set for January 4th.
Tenants at the building did not seem to know Houle, with some figuring he had lived there for less than a month.
Crime scene described
The first indication of what had actually happened inside the Edge on Jasper condo suite was provided by a man who seemed both ill at ease with the attention paid him by media (as if it was a civic obligation) while at the same time enjoying the telling of his incredible tale.
The Edmonton Sun was first to speak with Edge on Jasper building manager Luis Alvarado. Other news outlets soon followed, all eager to document the first-hand account of his discovery of the bloody scene inside suite 205 – read more »
What follows is a Frankenquote taken from various interviews Alvarado gave over the course of 24 hours.
Saturday, December 31st, was a day just like any other for Alvarado. He had been looking after the property for about six months and had become used to poking around the place.
Performing general maintenance duties in a seven-storey apartment building meant doing all sorts of things, mostly looking into and taking care of complaints.
This time it was about water dripping into a storage unit on a lower floor.
"We just kinda figured it was a leak, someone's thawing something out," Alvarado said. "We've seen it before but it was red in colour."
The storage room, filled with cleaning supplies and odd furniture, was directly below suite 205.
Alvarado checked with the suite's owner, a movie stuntman who lived in British Columbia, who told him a tenant recently had problems with a dishwasher that had since been fixed.
The unnamed stuntman sublet the unit to an autobody shop who in turn offered it to their employees. The current tenant, a man named Houle, had just moved in on December 23rd.
At about 2:30, Alvarado unlocked the storage room and noticed a reddish – almost pink – puddle on the floor that looked like water mixed with blood.
"It was really obvious that it wasn't just like a normal leak," he said.
Then he noticed the sound of running water coming from above.
Looking up, he saw drips falling from the plumbing pipes that serviced suite 205.
After cleaning up the puddle, Alvarado phoned the stuntman back, asking him to check with his tenant. When the owner didn't get an answer, Alvarado was told to go knock on the door.
The maintenance man played it safe and brought along a fellow-manager named Simon. Together they approached the door.
"I said, 'Hopefully it's not an unsolved mystery,' and we kind of chuckled," Alvarado said. "He said, 'No, that's just in the movies.' "
They heard loud heavy metal music as they approached the door and what sounded like someone splashing around in a bathtub.
They also heard some sort of a machine, like a blender or small power tool.
"Went up there. Knock knock. All I could hear was just running water and loud music," Alvarado said.
Figuring the tenant couldn't hear their efforts over the din, they tried again.
"Knock knock again. And by this time, manager Simon said 'You know what, just enter the unit.'
"When we cracked that door open maybe seven inches wide, it felt like my heart stopped and just an adrenaline rush kicked in," Alvarado said.
Apartment blood as seen from the outside – see additional images »
"Right there – right on the wall, lots of blood, on the floor, blood scattered kinda like just printed off ... shoes were scattered around too.
"I jumped back. I couldn't believe it. Right there, I closed the door."
Simon ran down the hall, yelling for someone to call police. They arrived in less than five minutes.
Alvarado escorted a pair of officers to suite 205. Both the water and the music were still going full tilt.
This time police tried to get the tenant's attention. Again there was no response. The officers told Alvarado to open the suite.
"Once I unlocked the unit, they opened it full open. It was just a bloody mess in there.
"Just trails going to the bathroom, to the kitchen, the living room – all these places," Alvarado said.
Blood seemed to cover all 608 square feet of the apartment – more if you counted the spots on the ceiling. And then it got worse.
"I could see a leg. Not a full body, but a leg in the kitchen. It was in such an awkward spot that the fridge would have to be out of the way for the body to be there and I didn't see the second leg," Alvarado said.
That's when police told him to leave. He did so with little encouragement.
"Not even the worst horror movie could depict or explain this because all that is fiction, but this is reality. I was in complete shock and terrified," Alvarado said.
"It was just unbelievable. It was shocking, gruesome, horrifying – like all these other words I could use – but seeing it right then and there, nothing has prepped me for this.
"I've always read news around the world, about drug lords decapitating and dismembering their enemies, things like that. You see pictures, but it doesn't really hit it of what I saw," Alvarado said.
The stuntman owner of suite 205 later learned of the homicide inside his suite by hearing it from media.
Police placed a special lock on the door and told Alvarado a crime scene cleanup company would come by to take care of things
– read more »
One such company is Trauma Scene Bio Services Inc., a firm often contracted by Edmonton police to take care of crime scenes, police vehicle clean-up and prison cell decontamination.
Trauma Scene Bio is also called in when usual methods to clean outside crime scenes – usually by fire hose – is not practical.
Weeks later, police still had yet to allow the stuntman inside his own unit. No reasons were provided.
Alvarado said what he saw inside the condo unit had a profound effect on him.
"Even just taking a shower is a little awkward because, like, the running of the water – that's what pretty much started it all," he said.
"And it just kinda like brings me back to hearing that same noise, the water.
"I'm not doing well, per se, it's not like I'm going to get over this right away. The images are just locked in my head."
Alvarado said in a few days he was headed out of the country on a two-week vacation to forget and move on. And he's likely made a mental list of movies he'll be sure never to watch ...
... such as Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 thriller Psycho, starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins.
Motel owners at the time reported a sharp drop off in business immediately after the film's release, due mainly to the then-groundbreaking shower stabbing scene.
Alvarado got support from Edge on Jasper property manager Vonessa Dejong.
"I've been here every day since trying to help him out," Dejong said.
"He's a great guy, he's been through a lot. Nobody should have to go through this – ever, because it's pretty horrifying."
Some tenants found it horrifying as well and had handed in their notice.
"They're really shaken up," she said, "It's pretty stressful and they're probably concerned for their safety and I don't really blame them."
Dejong reported that security video – allegedly showing Houle entering the building with a woman – was now in the hands of police.
"I hope her family knows that he has been apprehended and this guy is no longer going to be a threat to society," she said.
Who was Josh Houle?
"He worked at a garage down the street from my knowledge, and he got fired the day before," Vonessa Dejong said. She also thought Houle and the victim were cousins.
Comments on Facebook and those made by Houle's former employer suggested anger management issues may have been at hand – read more »
Alvarado said he had never spoken to Houle and had only seen him in the building's hallways.
"He kept to himself. He didn't have that 'feels like an angry person' or anything like that. He was just simple, straight outgoing," he said.
"There was no reason to suggest he was out of his state of mind or anything like that."
However, Houle's most recent employer would probably sum the man up differently.
His boss as 66st Autobody Ltd. (actually located at 12336 67 Street) said Houle had worked for him for only about a week and a half.
He turned over a key to the Edge on Jasper apartment suite to Houle on December 23rd. Soon the worker became unreliable, only showing up when he wanted to.
Houle was sacked on December 30th and was told to vacate the suite. He was last seen storming out of the shop.
Apart from police, the last time anyone else saw Houle was when he was being escorted out of the Edge on Jasper building.
Alvarado said he didn't see Houle inside the bloody suite when he led officers to the second-floor crime scene.
When Alvarado saw the man this time, he was in handcuffs with blood on his face and what appeared to be two neck wounds parttially covered by a bandage. Officers put Houle in a wheelchair before taking him to a waiting ambulance.
Josh Houle's Facebook page (since taken down) also suggested the man had recently done some time. Whether his profile picture is actually him being arrested remains a mystery (if it was, it suggests that a third person was on scene at the time).
Someone wondered how he could post to Facebook while in jail. Somehow Houle replied.
A Facebook friend expressed surprise at the news of Houle's arrest.
Less than two months before Josh Houle was charged with second-degree murder, a man with the same last name faced the same charge in Calgary – read more »
On November 4th, 2011, Calgary police were called to a home in the 3600 block of 39th Street N.E after a concerned person found a 45-year-old woman dead and her common-law husband of ten years missing.
Investigators figured the woman had likely been dead for at least 36 hours.
Police tracked down 44-year-old Gregory Sanders Houle and charged him with second-degree murder.
Autopsy results indicated Cherry Lotus Ledesma died of blunt force trauma.
Police said they had been to the home 37 times in the previous 12 months. 31 of the calls were the result of alcohol-related disturbances, while the other six were considered domestic violence issues.
The case was Calgary’s eighth homicide of 2011. At the time, Edmonton had recorded 43.
First court appearance
On January 3rd, 2012, Joshua James Houle made a brief court appearance.
Without a lawyer to represent him, the matter was put over until January 24th. He remained in custody.
Several family members of the victim were in the gallery. A few cried when Houle came before the judge.
Memorial
A now-familiar custom sprang up in front of the Edge on Jasper building. Friends later gathered at the spot to honour the woman who had been killled inside.
It also marked the place where the only public statements by those who knew the woman were offered – read more »
Friend Adrian Lachance said Misty Ward had a vibrant and friendly personality, and that she had a lot of people who cared about her.
"What happened here is quite the tragedy for sure," Lachance said. "Very devastating ... the loss is quite tragic. It's never a good time to get news like this.
"She was very outgoing, such a beautiful young lady. It's kind of sad that it had to happen like this ... very sad how it happened to her family."
At least one media outlet had booked an on-camera interview with a member of Ward's family but they cancelled at the last minute, asking instead for privacy.
The family's request to not speak to media was also extended to friends of the woman.
However, it appeared one person had already spoken to the Edmonton Sun, albeit on condition of anonymity.
"She was very outgoing, very caring. Her smile just lit up any kind of situation," a friend who met Ward through the aboriginal community said.
Ward lived in the Belvedere area in an apartment she shared with her common-law husband.
"There's a few of us in the building that are just absolutely devastated. Just to find out what he did to her, it just rips my heart," a neighbour told the Sun, adding she believed Ward and Houle grew up together in the northern Alberta hamlet of Faust, near Slave Lake.
"All I can hear is her laugh. She had such a beautiful laugh and a beautiful smile. We are all just at a loss for words."
The woman described Ward as a regular 27-year-old who always had fun, enjoyed life and had lots of family and friends.
Another neighbour called the violence "sickening."
"We are still in a state of shock because of the brutality of it all," he said. "It's got to stop."
Victim identified; charges added
Late January 4th, police released details of the medical examiner's autopsy report.
It had been determined that Misty Lynn Ward, 27, died from a stab wound.
Joshua James Houle, already charged with second-degree murder, now faced one count of offering an indignity to a human body and two counts of breach of recognizance.
Police simply stated that the victim and accused were known to each other.
Court documents obtained by the Edmonton Journal and CBC Edmonton corroborated what Luis Alvarado thought he saw when he opened the Edge of Jasper suite to police.
According to the documents, Houle was also charged with offering an indignity to human remains for allegedly placing Ward "in a bathtub of water, [and] cutting and dismembering her body."
If the charges are proven in court, they would reflect that Ward's murderer was caught in the act of dealing with her remains. What he planned on doing with them next may never be known.
Most times, the bodies of homicide victims are left where they were were killed, such as in a home or a public space.
Sometimes they are stuffed into closets or crawl spaces, rolled inside carpets, tossed into dumpsters, placed in non-working incineraters, taken to fields on the outskirts of town, or burned inside cars.
But dismembered murder victims are few and far between. Even with the high number of killings Edmonton enjoys, the practice only occurs once or twice a decade – read more »
A long-remembered dismemberment case took place in 1995 when the torso of 35-year-old single mother of two Jo-Anne Dickson washed up in a maroon-coloured suitcase alongside Hawrelak Park.
26-year-old Donald William Smart was charged with first-degree murder and offering an indignity to a dead body.
At trial, a Crown prosecutor told the court sexual acts were performed on Dickson's body on several occasions, even whilst her body was partially dismembered.
In 1997, Smart was found guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder in addition to the indignity charge.
Smart was sentenced to life imprisonment and had to serve 20 years before becoming eligible for parole. He's set to be eligible for a day pass in January 2013.
Police later recovered Dickson's head and legs. Her arms were never found.
Full details of the Jo-Anne Dickson case can be read here.
Edmonton's next most well-known case of dismemberment took place just five blocks from the Edge on Jasper condo building where Misty Ward was found.
On February 20th, 2007, police were called to the Boardwalk Centre apartment building at 8820 Jasper Avenue after a tenant said she heard "a man who sounded like he was in agony."
Police checked a 15th-floor suite where the woman thought the sounds were coming from but they didn't find anything.
Hours later, a man on the 13th-floor noticed blood seeping through his bathroom ceiling and splattering on the floor.
This time officers made their way into a 14th-floor suite and found 23-year-old David Wong being cut up in a bathtub. Four males were also found in the suite.
Kyle Lloyd Grapentine, 23, Michael Alexander Gray, 23, Nicholas Richard Harris, 25, and Jason George Costouros, 23, were each charged with one count of accessory to murder and one count of offering an indignity to a body.
An autopsy revealed that the partial dismemberment did not contribute to Wong's death and no one was ever charged with his murder – read more »
Wong was also known to police, as were three of the four men charged. Wong had once survived separate shooting and machete attacks and had been previously convicted on numerous drug charges.
Nicholas Harris had been charged with drug offences following a cocaine-related arrest in Grande Prairie in March 2006, while Jason Costouros had been charged with assault and weapons offences following a home invasion in May 2002. He was on statutory release at the time of Wong's murder.
Michael Alexander Gray had been convicted of the stabbing death of Layton Leslie Montpellier outside the Cowboys Country Saloon November 11th, 2001. Gray pleaded guilty to manslaughter in March 2003 and left prison in August 2006 on a statutory release.
Wong's funeral was closely monitored by police who feared further violence would take place.
On October 23rd, 2008 the four men found dismembering David Wong's body pleaded guilty to being accessories to murder after the fact and interfering with a dead body.
Prior to their sentencing hearing, Kyle Grapentine was spotted by media outside court.
When asked for comment, the man's reply was channelled through James Dean: profanity-laced and with instruction for reporters to "beat it," adding "Didn't you hear me saying fucking no comment or what?"
Three men received sentences ranging from four years to four years and six months.
They only man without a previous criminal record, Grapentine, received two years and eight months.
"They dealt with the body of Mr. Wong as if it was the carcass of a dead animal. It appeared as though the four of you were in the process of discarding parts of this man's body as if it was offal – leftover parts from a slaughterhouse," Justice Sterling Sanderman said while outlining his sentencing decisions.
He went on to describe the apartment as an "abattoir" and a "private chamber of horrors."
The suite in the Boardwalk Centre apartment building where Wong was found was well-known to tenants: it was formerly occupied by three Edmonton Eskimo football players.
The entire David Wong story can be read here.
Twenty months later, Edmonton police dealt with a dismemberment case that topped anything Hollywood could come up with.
The case was about a wannabe filmmaker who thought he was Dexter, the fictional character in a television program of the same name about a Miami police forensics expert who moonlights as a serial killer.
Mark Andrew Twitchell was convicted of the first-degree murder of Johnny Brian Altinger after the man's body had been butchered, burned and thrown down a storm sewer.
Twitchell's story was documented in three national television programs (on NBC, CBC and CBS) and the book The Devil’s Cinema by Steve Lillebuen due out on March 27th, 2012.
"I think the public's going to be shocked with what's going to eventually come out when you guys are allowed to report on this," homicide Det. Bill Clark told reporters ahead of the trial – read more »
Johnny Altinger, 38, was last seen on October 10th, 2008. Soon a suspicious email was received by everyone on Johnny's mailing list, saying he had gone to Costa Rica with a woman.
Friends who entered Altinger's apartment found his toothbrush, suitcase, and passport, prompting them to report him missing to police.
On October 31st, Mark Twitchell, 29, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with Altinger's death.
In addition, Twitchell was charged with aggravated assault in connection with a second man. That charge was later upgraded to attempted murder.
Like Donald Smart, the man convicted in connection with Jo-Anne Dicksons's dismemberment, Twitchell also won contests appearing as science fiction characters, such as Transformer's "Bumblebee."
At trial, jurors likely thought they watching an episode of CSI when images of a garage floor treated with Luminol was presented, showing where Altinger had been attacked.
A metal "kill table" had been made in connection with a film Twitchell was shooting. It was here he took Altinger's body apart, putting the remains into a 45-gallon drum.
Police documented how investigators could fit the 45-gallon drum into the rear of Twitchell's car that bore the licence plate DRK JEDI. It was a tight squeeze.
Blood was found on various parts of a 12-piece Outdoor Edge portable butchering set found inside the garage.
Twitchell tried burning Altinger's dissected body inside the barrel in his parent's back yard. When that didn't work, he threw the body parts down a storm drain.
Investigators found a document on Twitchell's computer titled "SKconfessions." The filmmaker said it was a script for a movie. Police called it a diary.
Twitchell claimed self-defence but a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, a conviction that carries a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
After the trial, Twitchell launched an appeal, saying media had "overtly sensationalised" the trial. He later abandoned the appeal.
More about Twitchell's trial can be read here.
The Edmonton Sun put the question of what type of a person was capable of going past simple homicide to the taking apart of another person to two criminologists.
"The average person can't take a human body and start cutting it up," Darryl Davies, former parole officer and professor of criminology at Carleton University in Ottawa, told the Sun.
"This has to be a person who has had experience in the past doing it with animals or insects."
Davies (pictured at left) has worked in the field for over 30 years and spoke of the chill that word of dismemberment sends to society.
"When people read about this, it does cause a great deal of fear because it's speaking to the horrible possibility of what our species does to one another," he said.
"These individuals symbolize very clearly and consistently something that is very ugly and displaceable about our life."
Prior to coming to Grant MacEwan University, criminology instructor Michael Gulayets worked at Alberta Hospital.
In 15 years dealing with mentally disturbed offenders, he couldn't recall anyone who had committed dismemberment.
"This is such an extreme and unusual behaviour that it's hard to comment on," Gulayets said. "To try and make sense of it is very difficult."
Both Gulayet and Davies agreed on the reasons why some killers go so far as to dismember their victims.
Some simply do it to get rid of evidence, while others have a mental disorder or do it to release some form of gratification, they said.
Funeral held
Misty Lynn Ward's funeral took place on January 8th at the Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, 10821 96 Street.
Nearly 200 mourners attended to pay their respects to the young woman – read more »
The ceremony was best described as emotionally charged. Mourners struggled to honour Misty for how she lived rather than how she died. The 27-year-old was remembered as having a "heart of gold."
Songs played by a family member provided a soundtrack for the ceremony.
A cousin recalled Ward's spirit, her love of sports, and her ability to make people smile.
"Didn't matter the mood, she'd walk in and the room lit up," he said. "She liked to say 'Live, Laugh, Love and never give up.' She had a heart of gold."
He spoke of Misty's passion for basketball and the Edmonton Oilers.
"She was always so into every game," her cousin said. "She even got a full scholarship to the U of A for basketball."
Her brother, who had the words "RIP MISTY" shaved onto the side of his head, struggled to speak when he addressed those gathered.
"My sister, we had a special bond, that many didn't understand," he said. "I'm going to miss her so much. I don't want to believe that she's gone, but she's in a better place."
Second court appearance
On January 24th, 2012, Joshua James Houle made his second court appearance.
This time, the appearance was long enough that sketch artist Amanda McRoberts was able to capture a likeness of the man.
Houle did not enter a plea and the matter was put over until February 28th. He remained in custody.
Media note
News days on weekends are usually slow. On a holiday weekend, they're even slower.
But on a news day on the cusp of a city's bloodiest homicide year, a day charged with two murders and a suspicious fire death – and with public relations folk mostly unavailable, any willing source of first-hand knowledge of a major crime would be seized upon with zeal.
The interviewing of Luis Alvarado provided an interesting study of current media practice when it came to the handling of those close to a subject – read more »
With an off-limits crime scene, and little in the way of details coming from police (aside from homicide Staff Sgt. Bill Clark's "quite gruesome" teaser quote), the sudden availability of a near-eyewitness to Edmonton's latest homicide seemed too much of a temptation to resist in terms of "how far will he go?"
At best, Luis Alvarado appeared to be a good-natured and reluctant-but-willing participant in the circus surrounding the death of Misty Ward.
A comment he provided on a page of Edmonton Sun's online coverage of Ward's murder almost suggested that he felt badgered. That he sought out and commented on the Sun's web page also indicated Alvarado had a keen interest in how his story had been portrayed.
Taken at his word, Alvarado likely thought he was doing the right thing at the time by making himself so freely available to media. Events of the day had happened to him, after all. He was not a protagonist but almost a victim himself.
And in the heat of the moment, the silvered tongue of media demand may have overwhelmed the young man.
Alvarado was first interviewed by the Sun ...
... who triumphed their scoop with front page coverage.
It was a big break in media terms – huge, in fact. So much so that others news outlets had to ratchet up their follow-ups.
Online, the Sun posed Alvarado in the hallway near suite 205.
Surrounding a session of quote grabs from Alvarado, TV cameras followed the man into the Edge on Jasper building where he showed reporters around.
While Global Edmonton matched the Sun's shot, CTV Edmonton notched things up a bit ...
... following the now-standard hallway pose with a re-enactment of Alvarado's entry into the storage room.
The Edmonton Journal earned points with this published pose. By this time, Alvarado likely thought he was done with reporters and their cameras. Then CBC Edmonton got involved.
As Johnny-come-latelys to the scene, the public broadcaster probably figured it was best to go where no media had gone before.
Led by reporter Terry Reith, Alvarado again went through the motions, re-telling his tale once again ...
... re-living the discovery of the leak ...
... and the horror of seeing Misty Ward's severed leg through the cracked doorway of suite 205.
If there was a Genie category for Best Performance in a Crime Scene Re-enactment, Alvarado would be a worthy contender. His patience was more than the medium deserved.
Earlier, Alvarado said the sound of running water triggered the replaying of horrific images forever locked in his head. One wonders if the sight of news cameras now also had the same effect.
The point of all this is not to suggest that a media conspiracy is at hand.
News packages are put together independently and in isolation. Only after each outlet reviews its competitor's latest and final efforts can self-analysis be made.
And when a new news story breaks, reporters head into the field knowing what the other guys did the last time around ... and what they have to do now to meet that most recently-set bar and appease their corporate masters.
Winners in this race might be viewers and readers ... and individual news gatherers.
But then there are the Luis Alvarados of the world who have to go on with their lives and seek out their own attaboys.
All the information presented on this page has been compiled primarily from published media reports and should not be interpreted as having legal bearing or other prejudice against the individuals named on this web site.
The Last Link on the Left practices fair presentation and the disclosure of relevant interests.
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