Hunting The Home Hermit

In October 1991 a forty-seven-year-old woman named Carolyn Case vanished from the Jeweled Elephant, a gift shop in Toronto where she worked. A couple of days later her white Mercedes-Benz was found in a ditch near Caledon, Ontario, blood-stained, with no trace of her. details of the account remain covered until revealed Months later a skeleton, probably hers, was found in the woods 457 metres from where the car had been left.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now He kept it and let it decay: paint peeling, grass uncut, curtains drawn in summer, and neighbours saying they never knew anyone lived there. He mostly lived in the attic and would disappear into the bush for weeks at a time, often barefoot, sleeping in the same clothes. A neighbour, Joyce Brundle, said the lights were never on. A twelve-year-old next door, Candice Schultz, said the local children were told to keep away because he slept in the attic.

details of the account remain covered until revealed Alison Shaw, Daris's wife, sold her paintings in a corner of his shop. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it His shop closed in April 1991. this part of the story is covered for now He also called him a walking time bomb.

details of the account remain covered until revealed He arranged a tour with the owners, Ian and Nancy Blackburn. Ian was fifty-five, a partner in the real estate firm Harrison and Blackburn; Nancy was forty-nine and a public health nurse. They had no children, had been together about twenty-five years, and used the Caledon farmhouse as a weekend escape. They wanted to sell the barn so it could be taken down and rebuilt elsewhere.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Instead, through the summer of 1991, he drifted between jobs, carrying a revolver in a briefcase and ordering ammunition at a gun shop. A labourer's employer, Kevin de Solinares, later testified about the gun and the missing bullets. Around the same time a rash of cottage break-ins hit the Caledon area: intruders left pornographic magazines, large bottles of urine and faeces wrapped in newspaper, and seemed to have been living in the cottages.

In the winter of 1991 Barry Barnet and his wife were walking near Green Lake with another couple when they checked on a friend's cottage. A pot of soup was simmering on the stove and a shaggy stranger came out of the shadows holding a revolver. He made three of them sit on the chesterfield for about ten minutes while he gathered his things, then left. Nobody was hurt, but the cottage community was frightened. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

In April 1992 Ian Blackburn went alone to the Caledon farm, apparently to prepare it for the following weekend. He was jumped, beaten and bound as he came through the door. At 7.36 in the evening a three-minute call went from the farmhouse to the Blackburn home in Toronto, and Nancy was persuaded to drive up the next morning. When she opened the door she was attacked, stripped and choked, then sexually assaulted in front of the bound Ian. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it There he killed Ian and put him in the trunk beside his wife, then walked away.

On April 13 the Blackburns' nephew, Jamie Osborne, went to check on them after six days without word. He found newspapers piled on the step, blood-stained tissues in the car and, in the trunk, both bodies. The autopsy showed Ian died of asphyxia with a blunt-force injury to his neck; Nancy had been strangled and had multiple blunt-force injuries and ligature marks on her ankles, wrists, neck and mouth. this part of the story is covered for now Before long they found a garbage bag in a ditch near the murder site containing bottles of urine and newspaper-wrapped faeces, the same calling card as the cottage break-ins. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed On June 29 a twenty-six-year-old manager alone in a clothing store was forced into the back room at gunpoint and raped; she escaped naked and handcuffed into the street. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it On July 3 Lenore Retray, twenty-one, disappeared from Sutter's Photo Studio at East Hastings Street. this part of the story is covered for now On July 11 he robbed a North Vancouver video rental store and abducted Monica Fast, nineteen, forcing her to drive her own Volkswagen Beetle to the camp. Police found the car, heard screaming and discovered both women tied to trees; Retray was catatonic after nine days.

details of the account remain covered until revealed He beat her, hogtied her, gagged her with her slip, put a plastic bag over her head and wrapped a wire around her neck. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Jelanou spent five days in hospital with a separated breastbone and rib cage. She testified that he had told her he would fuck her to death, and that she had fought for her life for more than twenty minutes.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Relatives of the Blackburn family later sold the farm, though the octagonal barn was still standing.