Missing Sask. 10-year-old found, police say
Updated Tue. Aug. 1 2006 4:36 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Saskatchewan RCMP report that 10-year-old Zachary Miller, reported abducted by a convicted pedophile, has been found alive.
Earlier in the day, an RCMP officer who once worked with convicted Ontario pedophile Peter Whitmore has issued a plea for him to release two missing boys believed to be in his custody.
In an audio statement on the RCMP Saskatchewan website, Cpl. Laural Mathew told Whitmore that he was doing well in his rehabilitation in Chilliwack, B.C., and that he needs to do the right thing.
"You were doing so well while you were here, and I know you've been going through some stress lately," said Mathew in her audio statement.
"But Peter, this needs to come to an end. The best thing for you to do, right now, is to find a way to do what you've always done before -- and release the children.
The corporal tells Whitmore to drop the children off at "any safe place where they can be found," adding, "if you need someone to help you, call a lawyer or a family member or me."
Whitmore, 35, has been charged with abduction in the disappearance of 10-year-old Zachary Miller of Whitewood, Sask. Police issued an Amber Alert for Zachary late Sunday.
Mounties believed Whitmore to also be travelling with 14-year-old Jordan Bruyere. He was last seen in Brandon, Man., on July 22.
Police have filed a missing person's report for Bruyere but are not calling his case a kidnapping.
"We're still considering Jordan a missing person at this point, however given the history of the suspect he's with, we are very concerned for his safety,'' said Const. Jacqueline Chaput.
"The suspect, we feel, may be under the impression that he did have permission to be with Jordan.''
Jordan is described as 5'6" tall, 150 pounds, with blue-green eyes and brown hair.
Whitmore is a repeat sex offender. After serving his most recent sentence, of three years, Whitmore initially relocated to Chilliwack, B.C. in June 2005, and then to Morinville, Alberta in June.
He is described as white, about six feet tall with a heavy build. He may be driving a 1988 blue Dodge Caravan with possible wood paneling.
"The suspect has been seen in the Whitewood area over the last few days," Sgt. Tammy Patterson said Monday. "The suspect has also been in contact with the victim's family in the last few days."
Community shocked
Whitehood Mayor Malcolm Green said residents in the community of less than 1,000 people -- located along the Trans-Canada Highway east of Regina -- are angry.
"We went from a state of shock yesterday morning to disbelief and then sadness. And now there's a level of anger due to the fact that this kind of thing shouldn't happen in any community, least of all ours," he told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday.
"That a person with his background can move so freely without any knowledge of at least us being told and aware of what he is like."
Jordan's mother, Joannie Robinson, says Whitmore travelled with her son and her husband to Brandon about two weeks ago to pick up a new truck.
Whitmore managed to convince Robinson's husband to return to Winnipeg after asking him to pick up $2,000 that he said he'd left behind.
She said Whitmore promised to return later with the boy, but never did.
"I'm just going to get my van fixed here in Brandon and I'll bring Jordan home," Robinson quoted Whitmore as saying.
He then called the next day and repeated the promise but he never returned the boy, said Robinson.
"I talked to my son. I asked him if he was OK. He said yes," she said.
"I tried to find out where he was, (but) he kept telling me 'Mom, I don't know where I am.'"
Criminal history
Whitmore is well known in Ontario for a string of high-profile sex assault convictions against children. He was first convicted in 1993 of abduction and five sexual offences involving four young boys and spent 16 months in custody.
Nine days after his release, he took an eight-year-old girl from Guelph, Ont., to Toronto, and was sentenced to 56 months in prison.
Less than a month after his November 2000 release, he was found in a downtown Toronto motel with a 13-year-old boy. He was sentenced to one year in jail.
In 2002 he fled to British Columbia in an attempt to avoid the media spotlight in Ontario after he was found in the company of a five-year-old boy.
In B.C., he pleaded guilty to parole violations because a "rape kit" had been found on him.
A search of Whitmore's backpack turned up latex gloves, pictures of young children, tubes of jelly lubricant, duct tape, a sleeping bag and plastic zipper ties that can be used as handcuffs.
In 2002, Whitmore told CTV's Canada AM that he was not going to re-offend. "I can't change the past, but I can change the future. I won't do it again," he said.
Section 810
Whitmore was released from jail on June 16th, 2005, after serving a three-year sentence. He took up residence in Chilliwack, B.C.
He faced additional restrictions under the Criminal Code's Section 810, which included a ban on direct or indirect contact with minors. It is issued by a judge and is good for one year in the province or territory where it was issued.
Police last had tabs on Whitmore on June 18th, 2006, three days after the post-sentence restrictions expired. They say he had been staying in Morinville, Alta., sporadically, The Globe and Mail reported.
The Globe said police had been talking to Whitmore about renewing the order, and he seemed open to renewing it but did not appear for a June 29 court date that would have reissued it.
John Muise of the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness, said these court orders need to be extended for longer than a year.
"The bottom line is those post sentence orders need to be fixed. They're too short. They're a year. They need to be five years. They're very difficult to obtain," he told Canada AM.
He also said Canada should use electronic monitoring more.
"And quite frankly, we've taken a cookie-cutter approach to responding to criminals."
The case has also brought up concerns about the sex-offender registry.
Steven Skurka, a Toronto lawyer and legal analyst for CTV who once had Whitmore for a client, said there is some room for improvement in the criminal justice system. But he urged caution.
"The concern I have is that we not use one case and draw sweeping conclusions."
"This whole notion that we should have the kind of registries for example they have in the States where the public would have complete access to them rather than the police monitoring them, that's led to actual deaths in the state of Maine."
In a case of apparent vigilante justice, a young Canadian man killed two convicted sex offenders in Maine before killing himself.
With reports by CTV's Jill Macyshon and Kathy Tomlinson, and files from The Canadian Press