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Red Deer Advocate WEEKEND EDITION SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2015
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Body of evidence Items kept in meticulous storage in RCMP evidence lockers are not only part of fighting crime, sometimes they’re almost a museum of the bizarre
Photo by Crystal Rhyno/Advocate staff
Red Deer RCMP Sgt. Rob Marsollier holds a potato launcher that was seized in the city. It’s only one of many weapons, some handmade, some modified, that police keep in strictly managed storage, for possible use in court proceedings. BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF Long after the headlines are forgotten and memories fade, the evidence used to help solve Red Deer’s crimes will stand. In some cases, the evidence is preserved indefinitely. Take for example a widely publicized case where a Red Deer woman was reported missing in January 1989. It was alleged that her husband killed and dismembered her in their bathtub before removing her body in a duffle bag. Blood and hair were recovered in the drain. The body was never found and the husband has since died. However, the smashed shower doors and other items from the apartment are wrapped and secured
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in the exhibit hall in the basement of the downtown Red Deer RCMP station. “Every time I think I have seen it all, something else comes in,” said Bonnie Brown. Brown is one of two exhibits custodians who are responsible for cataloguing, tracking and overseeing the evidence in the police storage system in Red Deer. Her colleague did not want her name used to protect her privacy. The shower doors are likely the oldest exhibits among the diverse array of items collected over the decades. Police may have seized the 12,000 exhibits dating back to the 1980s during homicide cases, drug busts, traffic stops and other crimes. Hundreds of larger items, such as trucks, cars and bicycles, are stored off-site. Hazardous goods, including paint thinners and gasoline, are also stored on the police compound.
In some circumstances, the items were recovered from domestic violence situations where weapons were found in the homes. Row after row of exhibits brim with a large number of found property, including cameras, cellphones, tools, jewelry, skateboards, phone chargers and umbrellas. Then there’s the arsenal of weapons, including swords, sawed-off shotguns, replica firearms, bats, modified firearms, bow and arrows, potato guns and much more. There’s not much to see in the drug room — rather it is the smell that gives away the contents. Everything from marijuana, heroin and crystal meth to cocaine is stored in boxes on the shelves. Large quantities of drugs seized in grow ops are stored at off-site locations.
Please see EVIDENCE on Page A2
A husband killer in a sleepy town CAT’s last dinner theatre of the season is a delightful Norm Foster comedy . Story on PAGE C3
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