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http://www.innocencecanada.com/exonerations/steven-truscott/
https://www.goderichsignalstar.com/2015/01/04/the-search-for-lynne-harper/wcm/975317c0-3212-ad6b-588e-4ab8edbf05a2

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The Wrongful Conviction of Steven Truscott

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The Wrongful Conviction of Steven Truscott

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The Wrongful Conviction of Steven Truscott

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In 1966, this book was written that revealed numerous problems within the case.

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Years after the murder of Lynne Harper, her family speaks out on the different emotions they felt and how they dealt with everything that was happening.

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The family of Lynne Harper finally broke their silence Wednesday to talk about the "mental distress" they have suffered while watching the acquittal of the man they have always believed to be her killer.

Steven Truscott, who was convicted as a teen of raping and murdering 12-year-old Lynne in 1959, was cleared of the charges Tuesday in a unanimous judgment of the Ontario Court of Appeal.

The court stopped short of declaring Mr. Truscott innocent, but nevertheless gave him reason to declare victory in his long-fought legal battle.

While Mr. Truscott and his supporters celebrated in Toronto, on the other side of the continent, Lynne's 90-year-old father, Leslie, had to take the news sitting down in his private room at a nursing home in the western United States. When he heard the verdict, he said, his legs went numb.

"All I can think about is the cruel 50 years of mental distress," Mr. Harper said, hoarse-voiced in a telephone interview Wednesday. "The joy, the jumping up and down on the streets where he [Mr. Truscott]was yesterday, it doesn't sit too well.

"I'm numb, as a matter of fact. I'm to the point where I don't feel as if I can even stand up or walk."

Mr. Harper, whose wife Shirley died several years ago of a heart attack, stayed up all night before the 300-page judgment was released.

When his eldest son, Barry, called him about it, Mr. Harper was stunned.

Mr. Harper passed up the opportunity to speak directly to Attorney-General Michael Bryant because he prefers to hear news about Lynne's case from Barry.

While he still possesses all of the faculties required to digest the thick document that contains the court's rationale for acquitting Mr. Truscott, the elder Mr. Harper says he doesn't have the stomach for it.

"A little girl was never given an opportunity to live," he said.

He and the rest of his family have believed that Mr. Truscott was guilty since he was first convicted as a teen in 1959. Even after all these years, Mr. Harper cannot force himself to say Mr. Truscott's name.

The Harpers have been haunted by Lynne's murder since the day her body was found. "He still has things that belong to my sister that he picks up on a daily basis," Barry said of his father. "He's never gotten over his sorrow."

At the time of Lynne's killing, the Harpers had only been living at RCAF Clinton, a base in southwestern Ontario, for about two years. Mr. Harper was a flight lieutenant. His wife, Shirley, stayed home to care for their three children, Lynne, 12, Barry, who was in Grade 10, and Jeffrey, who was only four years old when Lynne's body was found in Lawson's Bush.

"I think my sister was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Barry, whose recollection of the days before and after Lynne's killing are pristine. Still, he's shied away from speaking publicly about them - aside from a deposition he gave during a two-year review of the case in 2002 - because the courts, until now, have upheld Mr. Truscott's guilt.

"Years ago, when the Supreme Court threw the appeal out, I thought that was the end of it," Barry said. "The thing has got a life of its own."

Now, Lynne's funeral still runs like a movie reel through Barry's mind.

"The funeral procession went from Clinton all the way to St. Thomas. That's got to be about 60 or 65 miles," he said. "There were Brownies and Girl Guides standing on the sides of the street as the [hearse]went by. It was something that kinds of sticks in your mind."

Six months later, when Mr. Truscott was convicted, he was only 14. Still, he had already earned a reputation among the youngsters at RCAF Clinton as being more interested in schoolgirls than books, Barry said. Although he was closer to Steven Truscott's older brother, Ken, Barry remembers being paired as a defensive line mate with Steven. "I grew up with that guy," he said.

Now an engineer for an auto-parts manufacturer in the United States, Barry still keeps a cache of newspaper and magazine clippings documenting his sister's case, which has been immortalized in several movies and books, although he rarely needs to refer to them. He's carried with him for nearly 50 years the memories of his family's destruction.

"My dad wouldn't talk to anybody. He'd go to work and come back and sit in the chair and think about what happened, I guess."

Barry said that after the killing, the muted family remained on the base, but their only outings were for Sunday dinners at the base dining room.

"I don't think they did any socializing," he said. "From the time of the trial to the time we moved, we didn't do much of anything."

After Mr. Truscott's conviction, the Harpers left for a month-long respite in New Brunswick. They avoided as much as possible speaking to the media while working through their terrible pain. Eventually, they moved to a different air force base in Langar, England, where they tried to get on with their lives. But over the years, as Mr. Truscott pressed on with his campaign for exoneration, healing became impossible.

"You never want to see someone who was innocent convicted of something," the elder Mr. Harper said Wednesday. "But this is about money."

The Harpers have long felt that part of Mr. Truscott's motive in continuing the efforts to clear his name has been to win a hefty compensation package from the government.

On Tuesday, Mr. Truscott's lawyer, James Lockyer, said his client should "get every penny he can out of the government after what he has been through." Former Appeal Court judge Sydney Robins has been appointed by the provincial government to review the issue. However, he said he must first decide whether Mr. Truscott, who has not been deemed innocent, is entitled to an award.

"The issue turns on the fact that there was no explicit finding of factual innocence in the case," Mr. Robins told The Canadian Press Wednesday.

Both Harpers said they will try to block any payout to Mr. Truscott. Barry said he has spoken with provincial officials to notify them that he and his father both plan to make written submissions to Mr. Robins on why they think compensation should be denied.

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Lynne Harper's family speaks out on Truscott

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The family of Lynne Harper finally broke their silence Wednesday to talk about the "mental distress" they have suffered while watching the acquittal of the man they have always believed to be her killer. Steven Truscott, who was convicted as a teen of raping and murdering 12-year-old Lynne in 1959, was cleared of the charges Tuesday in a unanimous judgment of the Ontario Court of Appeal.

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After remaining silent for 40 years, Truscott decides to go public and speaks about his side to the story and how his life has changed.

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Steven Truscott - His Word Against History - the fifth estate

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Who is the Real Murderer of Lynne Harper?

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Who is the Real Murderer of Lynne Harper?

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After lots of searching and finding connections, retired OPP sergeant Barry Ruhl, believes he knows who is the true murderer of Lynne Harper in 1959. Barry Ruhl spent a lot of time trying to find evidence to support his theories, but it wasn't pursued far enough. By the time his theories were starting to be evaluated by the police, the suspect had already died.

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Who killed Lynne Harper?

Retired OPP sergeant Barry Ruhl believes he knows the identity of the person who killed the Huron County pre-teen in June 1959.

Ruhl, the author of A Viable Suspect, spoke to a Petrolia audience recently and outlined his theory.

Steven Truscott, only 14 at the time, was convicted of 12-year-old Harper's murder and then sentenced to death, a sentence later commuted to life in prison.

The Clinton youngster was later released on parole and decades later acquitted, but the Harper case appears to have grown cold and her real murderer has never been arrested.

Speaking at the Petrolia library, Ruhl said he first met who he believes is Lynne Harper's murderer - whom he calls Larry Talbot, although that's not the suspect's real name - when Talbot attempted to rob Ruhl and his wife.

Since the suspect has a family Ruhl chose not to use Talbot's real name.

"I didn't want to name them because they weren't part of his deviance."

But Talbot, the retired OPP sergeant contends, might be responsible not just for Harper's murder, but for a string of unsolved Ontario cases.

"I believe Larry Talbot should be considered a person of interest in several of them," he said.

Ruhl said the suspect was a traveling salesmen, and was considered a person of interest in other cases.

One such case was the murder of Oakville's Pauline Dudley. Talbot's car, Ruhl said, was spotted not far from where Dudley's body was found and when police searched it they found blood on the headrest and hair on the floor, along with other items in the trunk.

Talbot was never charged.

In Harper's case, Ruhl lists a number of connections, including similarities in the car Talbot owned and the one Truscott said he saw (a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air) the same evening that Lynne Harper went missing. Ruhl also argued that Talbot would have known the Clinton area, and that Talbot had the same type of blood as found on the scene where Harper's body was located. There was also a similar shoe size imprint found at the scene.

"Not slam dunk, but circumstantial," said Ruhl.

While Ruhl said he took his theories to his superiors about the string of unsolved murders, and that Talbot was tailed for a time, it wasn't pursued far enough.

And when the theory was re-evaluated decades later, it was too late. Talbot died before police had a chance to finish the investigation.

Ruhl said that although the suspect has since died, he hopes his work can still serve a purpose.

"It's a message to the police that there's a lot of cold cases in Ontario."

Amongst those in attendance at the Petrolia event was long-time Petrolia resident Mary Edgar, whose husband, the late Maitland Edgar, taught both Harper and Truscott in Clinton and always believed in Truscott's innocence.

"Everything was all botched," Mary Edgar said, in complaining about the police handling of the case.

She said investigators had to follow the theories of their supervisors.

"The police pretty well had to do whatever the top guy said."

Edgar added that although her husband worked with both the victim and the accused every day, police weren't interested in his input.

"He was never interviewed by the police."

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Who killed Lynne Harper? Retired OPP sergeant says travelling salesman a suspect in string of unsolved murders

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Who killed Lynne Harper? Retired OPP sergeant Barry Ruhl believes he knows the identity of the person who killed the Huron County pre-teen in June 1959. Ruhl, the author of A Viable Suspect, spoke to a Petrolia audience recently and outlined his theory.

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Driving Through Where the Murder Took Place

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Driving Through Where the Murder Took Place

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This is a video of someone driving down the road where Steven Truscott was giving a ride to his classmate, Lynne Harper. The person talking explains two sides to the story, one side being Steven's side. He also shows where Steven dropped Lynne off and where her body was found a few days later.

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After being granted parole at the age of 24 in 1969, Steven Truscott was compensated $6.5M for spending 10 years in prison, knowing he was innocent the throughout all the years.

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The Ontario government will pay Steven Truscott $6.5 million for suffering a "miscarriage of justice" and living 48 years with the stigma of being wrongfully convicted of a rape and murder he did not commit.

"We are doing what we can to bring to the conclusion this remarkable aspect of Mr. Truscott's life's journey," Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley said Monday in Toronto.

"We are doing what we can to conclude this journey, and it is my hope that Mr. Truscott and his family will now be able to spend all their time on the rest of life's journey."

He added that Truscott's wife, Marlene, will get $100,000 in compensation for the time she spent working to clear Truscott's name.

The announcement comes almost a year after the Ontario Court of Appeal acquitted Truscott of murder in the death of his friend, 12-year-old Lynne Harper, in the southwestern Ontario town of Clinton in June 1959. The court said his conviction was a "miscarriage of justice."

Truscott was just 14 years old when he was convicted in September 1959 after a 15-day trial. He was initially sentenced to hang, making him Canada's youngest death-row inmate, but after four months on death row, the sentence was commuted to life in prison.

He was granted parole at age 24 in 1969, after serving 10 years in jail.

Bentley said the government's decision to compensate was based on the advice of retired judge Sydney Robins, who was asked to study whether compensation would be appropriate, and if so, how much should he get?

'No amount of money could ever truly compensate Steven'

In a written statement, Truscott and his wife called the compensation a "final and long-awaited step in recognizing Steve's innocence." Still, the couple said the money is bittersweet.

"Although we are grateful for the freedom and stability this award will provide, we are also painfully aware that no amount of money could ever truly compensate Steven for the terror of being sentenced to hang at the age of 14, the loss of his youth or the stigma of living for almost 50 years as a convicted murderer," the Truscotts said.

Robins, in a written report outlining how he decided how much Truscott should be paid, noted there is no legal obligation to compensate Truscott, Still, he said not compensating Truscott would leave him with a stigma, a suggestion of guilt.

"The total amount paid to Mr. Truscott should be enough to ensure that he can live the remainder of his life with financial security, and in comfort and dignity, able to assist his family as he sees fit," Robins wrote.

"It should also be enough to send a clear signal to the public that the government recognizes the enormity of the suffering that this miscarriage of justice has caused."

The Harper family has yet to comment publicly on the compensation package. Harper's father, Leslie Harper, has said he was stunned by Truscott's acquittal and fears Truscott only sought to clear his name for financial reasons.

Since the acquittal, no one else has been charged with Harper's slaying. Over the years, other people have been named in the media as potential suspects. They include Alexander Kalichuk, an air force sergeant with a history of sexual offences who lived near the military base where Truscott and Harper grew up. Kalichuk, a heavy drinker, died in 1975.

Suffering considered in compensation decision

In awarding Truscott $6.5 million, Robins said he considered the emotional turmoil he has endured.

"There is no question but that Mr. Truscott's conviction, incarceration and parole forever altered his life," Robins wrote.

He noted that Truscott, who now lives in Guelph, Ont., suffered from loneliness, isolation and a loss of privacy while spending his teenage years and early adulthood in prison. Robins talked of the terror Truscott felt knowing when he thought he was going to die, including the day Truscott heard hammering outside his prison cell and was certain it was prison guards building the scaffolding where he would be hanged.

Once released from prison, Robins noted that life wasn't easy for Truscott. Under the conditions of his parole, which lasted until last year's acquittal, he couldn't leave the country or move without informing authorities. He was told to change his name to avoid attention.

Truscott and his wife married in secret in 1970 to avoid publicity and moved nine times to protect the safety of their three children, Robins said. He said Truscott suffered from nightmares and social anxieties, and has become extremely shy and hesitant.

But despite all the hardship, Robins said Truscott has been "an exemplary citizen," working steadily as a machinist and millwright, providing a stable life for his family and always abiding by the law.

Lack of DNA evidence in Truscott case

Robins noted that the Ontario Court of Appeal did not declare Truscott factually innocent, but Robins said it would be impossible to ever do so since DNA evidence has been lost and destroyed, and witnesses have died. Robins said it would be unfair to punish Truscott because of this.

Marlys Edwardh, one of Truscott's lawyers, said Truscott's case could give hope to others who are wrongfully accused but have no DNA evidence to clear their name.

"There are many wrongful convictions that can't be unwound by DNA," she said. "I think the model [Robins has] adopted is both useful and insightful, and will be of [precedent-setting] value."

But Alan Young, a professor at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, said the government is not bound to follow the same guidelines when dealing with other cases.

"It may be that the Steven Truscott case had such notoriety that they felt that they had to make the payment because the whole world was watching," he said.

"I like the development, but I wouldn't start celebrating a huge change in the approach, because it will still be a case-by-case determination."

Robins considered other cases

Robins said he considered other wrongful conviction cases in Canada, including the $10 million awarded to Winnipeg native David Milgaard after DNA cleared him of the 1969 rape and murder of a Saskatoon nursing aide. Robins noted that Milgaard, who was 16 at the time of his conviction, spent a total of 23 years in jail, 13 more than Truscott, and suffered a violent sexual assault while in prison.

Robins said the case of Maher Arar wasn't relevant to his decision, because the $12.5 million in compensation Arar received from the federal government was not for a wrongful conviction, but for damages resulting from his deportation to Syria, where he was jailed and tortured.

The Ontario Court of Appeal finished its eight-month review of Truscott's case in February 2007, and announced its decision to acquit last Aug. 28. At the time, then Attorney General Michael Bryant apologized to Truscott and said the Crown has no plans to appeal.

Provincial legislators have been calling for Truscott to receive payment. In April, Guelph's Liz Sandals of the ruling Liberal party tabled a private member's motion seeking support for compensation for Truscott, and all parties approved it.

Robins recommended that the federal government pay 50 per cent of the compensation. Bentley said Ontario is paying it in full for now, to ensure Truscott gets his compensation quickly, but that negotiations with the federal government are ongoing.

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Steven Truscott to get $6.5M for wrongful conviction | CBC News

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The Ontario government will pay Steven Truscott $6.5 million for suffering a "miscarriage of justice" and living 48 years with the stigma of being wrongfully convicted of a rape and murder he did not commit. "We are doing what we can to bring to the conclusion this remarkable aspect of Mr. Truscott's life's journey," Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley said Monday in Toronto.

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This video explains the series of events that took place the night Lynne Harper was murdered.

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This is the area where Lynne's body was found.

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Steven Truscott to the right
Lynne Harper, a classmate, to the left.