Two plumbers, Sean Farndnon and Jeremiah Wildeboer, were called to an apartment building after one of the tenants from the main floor complained of clogged drains. And as they worked away at the pipes, they came across a flesh-like substance.
“The plumbers pulled out what appeared to be a flesh-like substance,” prosecutor Bryan Guertin said in his opening statement. “The plumbers, unsure of what they found, called police.”
Police Constable Kevin Park went to the Oshawa home, northeast of Toronto in response to the call made by the Plumbers.
Park met with the two plumbers where he was shown a shopping bag in which some remains had been collected.
“I’d never seen anything like this before so I wasn’t sure,” the Durham Regional Police officer testified in court, as reported by CTV.
Four police officers then went down to the basement apartment where Strong opened the door. Park asked him what he had flushed down the toilet.
“OK, you got me, the gig’s up, it’s a body,” the man, identified as Strong, allegedly replied. “If you want to recover the rest of her, it’s in my freezer.”
Adam Strong, 47, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the grisly death of Rori Hache, 18, who vanished a few months before the plumbers made the shocking discovery in Oshawa, Ontario, on Dec. 29, 2017.
He also is accused of killing 19-year-old Kandis Fitzpatrick, who disappeared in 2008. He has pleaded not guilty to both murder charges.
Parts of Hache’s body were discovered in Oshawa Harbour on Sept. 11, 2017, by fishermen. Strong’s cellphone was pinged at the harbor a week earlier, according to the prosecution.
Investigators found the rest of Hache’s remains in a freezer inside Strong’s bedroom. Her blood was on the walls and ceilings of the room. Investigators also found evidence Strong had sexually assaulted her.
While the decomposing of Hache’s body left a cause of death undetermined, a medical examiner found multiple injuries, including two skull fractures, the prosecutor said.
Investigators also found Fitzpatrick’s blood in Strong’s freezer, in his bedroom, and on a large hunting knife, Guertin said.
Strong targeted both women because they “were vulnerable, were essentially homeless,” Guertin said.
The defense has argued that Strong’s statement to the first officer as well as subsequent videotaped interviews is inadmissible.
Opposing Views noted:
William Fitzpatrick, Kandis’s father, told the court that he last saw his daughter in the spring of 2008. She also struggled with drugs, and would leave home for weeks at a time without notice.
Testimony from Strong’s five other alleged victims of sexual violence and digital evidence from his phone will be presented in the ongoing trial.
Watch it here: ThatChapter/Youtube
Sources: OpposingViews, Daily Mail, CTV
