WARNING: Contains graphic testimony that readers may find disturbing.
WARNING: The following contains graphic testimony that readers may find disturbing.
For more on the first day of Russell Williams’s hearing go to: The dark, depraved side of Russell Williams revealed in court
[4:13 PM]
The judge gives his condolences again, and thanks those who spoke.
Court is adjourned.
[4:01 PM]
Roxanne Lloyd, Jessica’s mother takes the stand.
“I am Jessica’s mother.” She says her daughter’s full name, birth date, and date of death. She pauses, holding back tears.
She speaks quickly, firmly. Because of Williams, she says, she can never hug her daughter again or be hugged by her, tell her she loves her, get a phone call or email from her, go shopping or on trips with her.
“I feel like my heart has been ripped right out of my chest. I loved her from the moment I realized I was pregant. … I will continue to love her for the rest of my years on Earth, and even after I die.”
“I can’t even begin to imagine what Christmas will be like without her. It will be unbearable.”
“So many dreams I had for my daughter and myself have been destroyed.” She won’t hear Jessica tell her she’s fallen in love. She can’t help her plan her wedding. She can’t share the joy of becoming a mother, and she can’t become a grandmother.
“I have been put through sheer agony. No mother should go through what this has put me through.” Searching for her daughter, then finding out she’d been murdered, then finding out how she had been degraded and traumatized. “How could he do those horrible things to her, and then drive by her house twice a day knowing her family was searching for her?”
“I had to see my daughter in a casket. I had to see that it was all true. I prayed some big mistake had been made. But when I saw her in that casket I knew my hopes and dreams were over.”
“I never believed I would outlive my child. I wrote the eulogy for her funeral.”
She has never been one for medication, but she is now on sleep drugs and antidepressants.
“I can’t help wondering and asking why? How could he do this to my … wonderful, witty, thoughtful daughter?”
“Why did he do this to me too? Now I am a broken woman. I will never be the same.”
“The only good thing to come from this is he can never do this again. And it’s because of my Jessica that he has been stopped.”
She continues: “I’ve heard people should be forgiven. I can never, ever, ever forgive him. How am I supposed to live the rest of my life without Jessica? I can honestly say I hate Russell Williams.”
“I now wear her jewelry. I am wearing this necklace. It’s a mother and child. Jessica always preferred silver. I also wear a silver teardrop with Jessica’s ashes.” Andy wears a bracelet with her ashes in it.
“No amount of suffering Russell Williams feels today compares the suffering we have felt.”
Lloyd’s mother wishes she could bring her daughter back. “I would gladly take her place. I would die for her. Since that is not possible, I am here to today to make sure that Russell Williams is properly sentenced and that we get justice for Jessica.”
She finishes speaking, and loud applauds erupt in the courtroom.
[3:52 PM]
Andy Lloyd takes the stand. The judge gives him the courtroom’s respects.
He says it has been difficult to process his grief in the public spotlight.
“My sister and I were always close, especially after our dad died,” he stops, crying. He takes several sips of water.
They shared friends, and spent a lot of time together. “We were not only siblings, but friends.”
“I am a very proud supporter of the Canadian Armed Forces.” He speaks of the honorable service of his father, and how he would be horrified to know what Williams did to his daughter.
“Every day is a struggle to get through. I miss her so much. Special occasions are especially tough. Like Victoria Day weekend, which is one of her favourites.” Her birthday always fell on that weekend. “This year, like always, I had my annual party, but it wasn’t the same because she wasn’t there.”
He and his mother had a hard time on their August birthdays and Thanksgiving. “Looking ahead I can’t even imagine what Christmas will be like.” He sighs heavily.
“I was looking forward to being an uncle almost as much as I was looking forward to being a father. That won’t happen now. No big brother should have to go through what I went through. Searching for her, then learning she’d been murdered.”
“What did Williams think seeing me on every major media outlet,” he says of the pleas he made for help during the search for Jessica. “I can’t help but think he laughed at me, thinking, ‘She’s in my garage.’ ”
He can’t sleep, he is on multiple medications. “All I want is my life to go back to the way it was before.”
The only good thing now is that Williams has been caught, “and it’s because of my sister. My sister and the community think of her as a hero for stopping this from happening to another woman.”
“The media attention has been overwhelming.” He says he spoke with reporters because he wanted to make sure that this story is about his amazing sister, not about “the colonel—ex-colonel.”
He doesn’t understand why fate or God could let anything like this happen to such a good person.
He steps down. Claps erupt.
[3:51 PM]
In closing the aunt says: “Many people say that it took our little angel to take Russell Williams down.”
Lloyd gave her gift once that read, “The love in our family flows strong and deep. Leaving us special memories to treasure and keep.” She says, “Those memories will remain in our hearts forever.
[3:48 PM]
Lloyd’s aunt continues: “We all planned on seeing her get married, and have babies.” She says it is so painful to see Jessica’s mother suffer so much. “She wants her daughter back. Something none of us can do for her.”
“What gave him the right to take someone else’s child?”
“He has no idea what love means. He couldn’t have loved his own family because now they have to live with this too.”
[3:36 PM]
Court resumes. Williams is not hunched over, with his head tilted down, but it’s unclear if he is looking at the speakers giving their victim impact statements.
Next person is another aunt of Lloyd.
“We are a very close family. When one member is hurting, everyone feels the pain.”
She remembers Lloyd as a beautiful baby. Full of smiles, and “those huge green eyes just sparkled.”
“Jessica’s father was military, and so very proud of it, as we were of him.”
Lloyd’s aunt describes the happy times the family had together before Lloyd’s murder. “Then our world fell apart. I have never in life felt more pain, sadness and anger than I have these past several months.”
She doesn’t believe Williams took into consideration the love Lloyd had for her. She remembers being with Jessica’s mother, looking out Jessica’s picture window waiting for her to come home. Initially they were optimistic. “Then we went from fearing the worst, to living the worst.”
Her son told her their lives will never be the same. “You want to know how this has impacted my life? How hasn’t it?”
A six-year-old relative says he wants to be police officer so he can catch bad men like the one who hurt Jessica.
[3:10 PM]
Break. Many tears in the courtroom.
[3:04 PM]
A cousin and best friend of Lloyd’s take the stand. She talked to her multiple times a day, and saw her at least once a week.
“I have come to grips with the why questions never being answered,” she says. About the lurid details of the attack and murder against Lloyd, she says, “I knew her so well that those mental images will continue to break me everyday of my life.”
“I’m going to learn to appreciate life again know that I can still walk around on this Earth.” She says she believes that what goes around comes around, and that she can’t wait for fate to play out.
[3:01 PM]
Lloyd’s aunt continues: “Jessica did not have to die. She did not have to die this way. … I will never forgive Russell Williams.” While searching for Lloyd “We suffered each and every day while he continued on as if nothing had happened,” she say.
“What tears me apart that after everything he did to her,” the aunts contiues, “he ended her life, and then he dumped Jessica on the side of the road like a bag of trash.”
She pauses, crying. “We love you Jessica, we miss you everyday, and you will live in our hearts forever.”
[2:54 PM]
Lloyd’s aunt, fighting tears, says that Lloyd had said that she wasn’t afraid living alone, but that she was feeling uncomfortable about the “Tweed creeper.” Thirteen days later, Williams attacked and murdered her.
Lloyd’s aunt remembers standing outside with Lloyd’s mother and begging God that Jessica was safe and not cold.
Lloyd’s mother was devastated: “When your child is murdered, you just can’t accept it. There are so many whys?”
She remembers the call Lloyd’s mother had to make to Bell to disconnect her daughter’s phone line. It last more than an hour. She had to keep repeating that her daughter had been murdered. “How cruel.”
Lloyd’s aunt can find no peace. “Why did her attacker choose her, and why didn’t he let her live? What if she had stayed at a friend’s house, or a friend had stayed at her house? What if she had an alarm system or a dog? What if? What if? What if?”
[2:52 PM]
Multiple people have said the Lloyd wanted to have children, and mourn that her mother will never get to hold a grandchild. Lloyd said she would have named her son Tie, after her favourite Maple Leaf player, Tie Domi.
[2:45 PM]
Jessica’s aunt takes the stand. Starts to cry. She composes herself and begins in a steady voice. “Our family will never be truly happy again.” She says, speaking directly to Williams, “Since Jan. 29, when you selfishly took Jessica from us, we are all scarred for life.”
[2:30 PM]
Another woman takes the stand. “Russell Williams murdered my best friend,” she says. She grew up on the belief that you should look for the best in people and situations. Speaking to Williams, she says, “The only beauty I see in you is that you’re caught.”
After Lloyd’s father died of cancer, she made a promise to herself that she would take care of Lloyd. “I failed.”
“My life was almost perfect. I bought my first home and I had a career I thought I could only dream of.” At Christmas she and Lloyd gave each other a hug that lasted so long it was like it “foreshadowed what was to come.” They didn’t want to let go of each other. “That was the last face-to-face time I had with Lloyd.” Later, she says she “cried going to pick up my second set of keys because Jessica would never use that set.”
“I spent days and nights waiting to hear something, anything. There was one day when I received a call from my colleagues. I told them I knew Lloyd was gone. After my heart told me she was gone, I turned to hoping her body would be found. I knew she was outside. I hoped she was wearing clothing, it was cold.” She continues, “I hoped for a miracle. My miracle didn’t happen. Life as I knew it would never be the same. I lost my best friend forever. I didn’t get to say goodbye. He took that from me. I didn’t get to tell her I love her, or hug her. Russell Williams stole that from me. He was above the law until he met Jessica Lloyd. He had no idea the love her family and friends had for her. If he had, he would have never stepped foot in that house.
I have survivor’s guilt. I am constantly considering the what ifs. If I had never left Belleville, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. I’m now filled with hate and anger, and I have no idea how to live a life with these emotions.
I think about what Jessica’s last thoughts were, but I already know the answer.” She thought of her mother and brother and the pain they would feel. She says she doesn’t want to partake in life as it now exists. “I tell my colleagues my puffy eyes are allergies, all the while I cry myself to sleep at night. I don’t fear life and death. I am not suicidal. I would never give Russell Williams the satisfaction. Instead I fear for my friends and family and hers. It’s come to the point that when I can’t get a hold of someone I think the worst. I can’t handle losing anyone else.”
The woman continues, “This year I didn’t want to have a 28th birthday, because Jessica didn’t get to celebrate hers. Christmas was one of Jessica’s favorite times of year; this year I will prefer to sleep through it. I hate Russell Williams. I will never forgive him. People say forgiveness heals all wounds. I guess my wounds will bleed until the day I die.
She says Williams used his power and authority to take advantage of the Canadian public.
Making this statement, she says, “brings me no closure or satisfaction. I’ll leave today and continue to live my nightmare. I’ll get through my days knowing that Jessica feels no pain and that she is in peace. There will be a day when I get to tell her that I love her most.”
[2:22 PM]
Next person, another woman, takes the stand. She is speaking as a friend of Lloyd, and the on behalf of friends of Lloyd.
One friend says she never viewed the world the same after Lloyd’s murder. She loved her like a sister. Williams destroyed her life by taking her away. She hopes he rots.
The woman then speaks for herself: “I have never known the word hate. I never knew how someone’s name could make me cringe or how seeing them could make me feel physically ill. I despise Russell Williams. How dare he. His selfishness has changed who I am. I resent that he doesn’t have the courage to look at me.” She looks at him, but Williams does not appear to look at her. “I hopes that man loses everything. I hate him.”
[2:18 PM]
A break-in victim takes the stand to the right of the judge. She spells her name.
She’s tried many times to write this statement, but didn’t know what to say. She has studied criminology and psychology. She thought about the perpetrator, and how much the person needed to get help. He had to be emotionally disturbed. But as months went by, the effects of of the break-in became apparent. Her family put bars on the windows, she changed her routine. She moved to another city, and she had her landlord put in an alarm and introduced herself to neighbors. Now that her physical needs were met, her emotions took over. The person took her “trust, security and emotional well-being.” She had panic attacks, and has trouble sleeping to this day. She saw a therapist and was prescribed medication. Although there are much more heinous crimes than the one she suffered, she says this experience has affected her life very negatively.
[2:15 PM]
The Crown notifies the courtroom that victim impact statements will be read.
The judge is thanking the victims for coming forward.
[2:14 PM]
Williams is led back into the courtroom. He is hunched over. The judge enters. All rise. For the first time since the court proceedings began the large TV screens showing Williams photographs and confession, among other evidence, are turned off and away from the people in the coutroom.
[1:22 PM]
The court made available letters that Williams wrote after making his confession: one to his wife, which references the family cat; another to Jessica Lloyd’s mother; a third to Marie-France Comeau’s father; one to Laurie Massicotte, one of the sexual assault victims; and one more to the other sexual assault victim. Scrawled on lined paper, they read as follows:
Dearest Mary Elizabeth, I love you, sweet [illegible]. I am so very sorry for having hurt you like this. I know you’ll take good care of sweet Rosie. I love you, Russ.
Mrs. Lloyd, You won’t believe me, I know, but I am sorry for having taken your daughter from you. Jessica was a beautiful, gentle young woman, as you know. I know she loved you very much—she told me so, again and again. I can tell that she did not suspect that the end was coming. Jessica was happy because she believed she was going home. I know you have already had a lot of pain in your life. I am sorry to have caused you so much more. RW
Mr. Comeau, I am sorry for having taken your daughter, Marie-France Comeau from you. … I know you won’t be able to believe me, but it is true. Marie-France has been deeply missed by all that knew her. RS
Laurie, I am sorry for having hurt you the way I did. I really hope that the discussion we had has helped you turn your life around a bit. You seem like a bright woman who could do much better for herself. I do hope that you find a way to succeed. RS
[Name censored], I apologize for having traumatized you the way I did. No doubt you’ll rest a bit easier now that I’ve been caught. RS
[1:04 PM]
Break.
[12:53 PM]
“I guess what’s on my mind now, Russ, is what made you decide to tell me this?” Smyth asks, referring to the confession.
“Mostly to make my wife’s life easier,” Williams says, looking down.
Smyth asks, “Is what you told me tonight the truth?” Williams replies, “Yeah.
Smyth asks Williams how he feels about what he’s done. Williams is slient. Finally, he responds: “Disappointed.”
Smyth asks if it hadn’t come to this point, does he think it would have happend again. “I was hoping not. I can’t answer the question,” says Williams.
Smyth says, “Okay,” stands up, and says he wants to cover off a few more details. Williams sits down again.
In Comeau’s basement there is a hole in the wall. Williams says doesn’t know why.
Smyth asks about clothes that were tied around a support pole in her basement. Williams says that was from when he tied her up shortly after he’d knocked her out. Smyth asks if her mouth is duct taped at that point. Williams replies that he can’t be sure, “but the pictures would show it.”
Williams then explains that the smashed photo in the bathroom was the results of a struggle he had with Comeau. She had run into the bathroom, and he subdued her again, and got her back in the bedroom “and regained control of her.”
Smyth asks about the blood in the bedroom. “All of the blood was from when I was first trying to subdue her.”
Smyth asks why Comeau’s breasts were injurd. Williams doesn’t know. “I certainly touched her breasts, but I didn’t do anything to hurt her. But when I suffocated her she was on her front. So maybe there is something there. She was lying on the floor of the bedroom as I suffocated her, there was obviously a struggle, so maybe there’s something there.” Smyth asks what happened next. “Well, she died.” He took the tape off, and put her back on the bed.
Smyth says that there are a number of unsolved cases. Williams says “Before you do that can I go to the washroom?” Smyth obliges.
Courtroom footage ends.
The video proceeds with Williams being asked if he wants to write something to the victims or their families. The paper stays blank. Williams later describes the break and enters. He is invited to write again. He is left alone for an hour. Williams did write three letters. They will be submitted as exhibits. They are letters to victims, and one to his wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman. There are others he wrote that he later scratched out, which police have in their possession.
Williams denies any connection to other crimes.
He requests to review with officers what can be found in his home so they can get taht quickly and leave his wife alone.
He then takes officers to Lloyd’s body.
[12:49 PM]
Williams describes the other sexual assault, saying it was similar to what he’d just outlined against Massicotte. He calls the victim “cute,” and tells Smyth that she had told him she had an eight-month old baby. He breathes deeply, leans forward.
Smyth asks why he put the underwear of the sexual assault victims with those of the murder victims. “I don’t know.”
He stretches his neck in the chair while describing where in the laundry room he has put the green military duffle bag containing women’s underwear. Smyth asks if there is anything else in the bag. “Just underwear.”
Williams sips water, gets up again, hands behind his back, paces, leans against the wall. He explains where photos of him wearing underwear were taken. “In Marie-France’s case, in her house. With the others, in my house.”
[12:42 PM]
“We’ve been through this,” he says to Smyth when asked what happened on the night of the assault. He goes through the familiar list: subdued her, assaulted her, took pictures, stole lingerie, left. He says he told her that there were other guys in the house to control her. Williams say, “She was worried she was going to be killed. I said, ‘I’m not going to kill anyone.’ ”
He says he used his one and only digital photo camera, and a video camera. Williams tells Smyth they are in Tweed. He is rubbing his left thigh. He tells Smyth he left Massicotte’s by telling her to “count or wait for a couple of minutes before she called the police. I left.” He went home. Smyth asks if he waited to see if the police showed up. “No.” Williams says he went to sleep. The next day he went to work.
[12:39 PM]
Williams is standing against the wall still. His left hand is resting on his neck.
Smyth asks how he targeted Massicotte, the sexual assault victim. He says he knew she lived alone. Williams sits down again. Crosses his arms. “I looked in the window, and she was alone.” Williams says he knew she had a boyfriend, but “she told me they had been fighting. So.”
He had gone to Massicotte’s house before the night of the assault and “looked for signs of her boyfriend, and took two pieces of her underwear. That’s all.”
Williams got into the house through a window at the back of the house.
[12:36 PM]
Williams is trying to piece together a timeline again. This time sounds like he was at Comeau’s for more like five hours.
He left her home, and went straight to Ottawa on the 401 East. He had a meeting for a C17 acquisition project.
[12:28 PM]
The attack on Comeau lasted “an hour and a half, two hours,” says Williams. Then, he suffocated her using duct tape, he says, “as I described.”
Smyth asks why he did that. “Well, I had been taking pictures. As I described to you, it was going to be a pretty straight line to Tweed.”
Smyth asks why Williams used that method rather than another. Williams is silent, leaning forward, then back. “I had thought about strangling her earlier,” he says, and had tried, but it didn’t work. “Then I decided that I needed to suffocate her.” Smyth asks what footage exhists of him trying to strangle her. “Just me putting my hand on her throat, and her responding very aggressively.” He goes on to describe suffocating her.
Williams stands up again, grabs water, leans against the wall. Is trying to piece together how long he was in Comeau’s house. “I didn’t have a watch on so I’m not sure.” But roughly four hours.
Smyth asks what kinds of conversations he had with Comeau. He says none becuase he had taped her mouth. “She was quite aggressive.” He thought her screams would be “taking a chance.” She had screamed when she first saw him. “When she discovered me she was very vocal, screamed quite a bit, until I subdued her.”
He left through the back door, and left with some of her underwear.
Smyth asks if he did anything else to cover his tracks. “I turned off my Blackberry. Other than that, no.” Smyth asks if he destroyed evidence. “I took her sheets off the bed and ran them through the laundry in her house. I just put them in, put a bunch of bleach in, and let it go.”
[12:25 PM]
Williams says of Comeau: “She wasn’t wearing anything to start with. She had some shawl over her shoulder, which she dropped when she saw me.”
Smyth asks if she said anything to him when she saw him. Williams says: “She did. She called out, ‘You bastard!’ Then I subdued her as I described.”
He outlines the struggle they had, how he tied Comeau up, and carried her upstairs. “As I described, I put her on the bed and I raped her over a period of time. Just vaginal.” No condoms were used, he says.
[12:22 PM]
Williams is describing bringing in a green military duffle bag, which contained, among other things, a skull cap and head band. He says he was probably wearing running shoes because it hadn’t been snowing.
Williams describes hiding by the furnace in the basement, and waiting for Comeau to go to bed, “but she didn’t. She came downstairs looking for her cat. As I described, I subdued her with the flashlight.” Williams grabs his water. “Essentially wrestled her to the ground and tied her up.” Smyth asks with what. “Same rope, green rope.” He’s says it’s 20 ft. long, and in Tweed. Williams sits down, sips his water, puts it down, and crosses his arms again.
[12:19 PM]
Once Williams was in the house, he says he was “Just playing with her underwear.” Smyth asks what that means. Williams replies: “Wearing it.” He took a few clean pieces from her drawer, and left.
He went back another night. Got there at about 11 PM. Could hear her on the phone from the backyard. Williams stands up again, paces, puts his hands behind his back, leans against the wall, looks down. His white-socked feet are visible.
[12:16 PM]
Williams is describing how he parked far away from Comeau’s house, and then walked there. Says that the first time he went in, “looked around and made sure that she was living there alone.” He got in through the bottom side basement window. It was unlocked.
[12:15 PM]
Smyth turns to Comeau. He says he wants to understand why Williams targeted her specifically. Williams says, “I don’t know. Really. I went out there just to see where she lived.” He says he found her address through work.
[12:11 PM]
Williams explains to Smyth what he did over the next few days while in Ottawa.
When he returned to Tweed on Tuesday, Williams dropped Lloyd’s body off in the woods behind rocks. Smyth asks what prompted Williams to measure the distance to where he was dumping her body. “That’s just the way I am. Numbers.”
Williams says he cleaned and vacuumed when he went home.
[12:00 PM]
“Then we had a little lie down because she was obviously exhausted. Covered her, and went to sleep. Maybe for an hour or so. And I had told her ealrier that before I let her go i wanted to take some pictures of her in her underwear and, uh, have sex with her.” He pauses, chin in hand. “So after she had the rest for an hour or so, I had her put,” he pauses, “a number of different outfits she had.”
Looking for clarification, Smyth says “I’m sorry?”
Williams sighs, shifts, crosses arms. “A number of different panties and bras that she had.” He acknowledges that he is in some of these pictures. Smyth asks what kind. “Well, I’m with her. On the hard drives you’ll see there’s video as well. So there’s video of the, uh, yeah. Almost four hours, I guess.” He shifts, unfolds his arms, leans forward, left hand on knee. “Well, of initially of her place, me raping her.” He shifts again, crosses arms. “The video pretty much covers everything.”
He says he used video at Comeau’s as well. Smyth asks if the video contains “the same kind of stuff.” Williams says, “Yeah, but I didn’t have her put on any stuff.”
Then he got Lloyd dressed, fed her—”fruit”—and as they were walking out, Williams struck her.
Smyth asks when he decided to do that. Williams is quiet. “Well, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to let her leave. But, uh, the idea of striking her on the head was in the afternoon.” Smyth asks what the strike was supposed to accomplish. “I thought I would be able to knock her out, and then I was going to strangle her.”
When Williams did that, “Her skull gave way a little bit, and there was a lot of blood. She was immediately unconscious. And then I strangled her.” Smyth asks how. “Same rope, just put around her neck while she was unconscious.” He says he had taken the ziptie off of her neck “after she was killed.”
Smyth asks how he knew Lloyd was dead. “She,” he pauses, “her body stopped moving.”
He then bound her up in the fetal position. Long pause. He leans forward, sighs, puts his hands on his knees. “I put her in the garage. It was very cold. And drove to the base. Because I was flying early the next morning.”
[11:56 AM]
Smyth asks where the rest of the duct tape he used is. “It’s all gone. I used the rest of it to bind her body.”
He describes how they both slept for a couple of hours, but then says he isn’t sure if she slept. “We were up and down, up and down. So it was two hours in bed. But there wasn’t much sleep.”
Then, he says, “She had a seizure, actually. She felt it coming on. She’d had some before. Lasted quite a while. Got her dressed, into the family room, and, anyway. She recovered. Anyway. It was the stress. But, uh, yeah, probably went on for about 15 minutes.”
[11:54 AM]
Williams says they drove directly to Tweed, where they arrived between 4:30 AM and 5 AM.
His position has barely changed. He is still sitting back with his arms crossed. His voice is calm, quiet. He pauses between clipped phrases, looking down at the ground, nodding as he speaks.
He describes having her take a shower, and the tape he had put over her eyes.
[11:50 AM]
Williams admits he threatened Lloyd, and put a ziptie around her neck. He says he continued to rape her, had her put on lingerie, took pictures, then got her dressed and they left.
Smyth asks when Williams decided he was going to take Lloyd back to his home. “I’m not sure. That wasn’t necessarily always the plan. But at some point it was there for,” pauses, “I was there for three hours, three and a bit.” Stops.
Williams said Lloyd was “certainly cooperative. She just didn’t put up too much of a fuss.” He says, “I had told her that I would let her go later on.”
[11:45 AM]
While detailing how he got into Lloyd’s house the first time, he stands up, walks over the table, and puts something heavy and metal down, probably his keys. He leans against the wall with his water in hand, looking down, his ankles crossed. He details waiting for her to come home, and that when she was asleep he “snuck up to the side of her bed, expecting to try and knock her out. She woke up, but she did as I said. So I didn’t hit her.”
Smyth asks what he said. “Lie down on your tummy. She did. I tied her up. With some rope I’d brought.” Williams is scratching his head. He tells Smyth Lloyd was wearing “sweats.” He sits back down and says he took her clothes off. He sighs heavily. Looks at the wall. Smyth asks then what. “I raped her,” he says. Smyth says that can mean different things, to be specific. “Vaginal and oral.” Williams says no condoms were used.
[11:44 AM]
Williams believed that because Comeau was in the military “it would have been difficult for investigators to ignore that connection to him.”
[11:40 AM]
Smyth asks what kind of feelings Williams experienced when with Lloyd. “I thought she was very attractive.”
“I think I killed her because I knew that, uh,” he pauses, “that her story would be recognized.” He stops, looks to the ground. Smyth asks what he means. “Because she knew I was taking pictures. So because of the two stories in Tweed,” he believed he would have been an obvious suspect.
Williams says he doesn’t know what he would have done to Lloyd if he hadn’t taken pictures.
“The attention the first two got was very much focussed on obviously the pictures I took. So anybody else telling stories about pictures would ahve been a farily straight line.”
He looks down.
[11:37 AM]
“The first one I just spotted her. I got into the house while she was asleep. Noticed that she was alone. And hit her with my hand while she was sleeping. Subdued her. Mostly just by weight, on top her. Had her take off her pajamas, took some pictures, took some of her underwear and left.
Smyth asks about he otehr one. “SAme kind of deal. Went through the back of the house. She was sleeping by the TV. Vry much the same story.”
Smyth asks if there was anything different. “Not much. I did have the flashlight that time, I hit her with the flashlight to knock her out, and subdued her with my weight. took of her clothes, took some pictures and left.”
Smyth asks why these things happened. Williams is silent. Signs. Chin in hand, looking at ground. “I don’t know.” “But I don’t have any answers. And I’m pretty sure the answers don’t matter.
He says he didn’t know any of them, so it was not a matter of liking or disliking these women.
[11:35 AM]
Williams says he took underwaer from both of their houses, and they are in boxes in the furnace room near the wall. “Probably one is from the scanner. If you look through the boxes there, you’ll find it.
Smyth asks how many pieces are there. “Probably 60 pieces of theirs.” Whose? “Of Jessica and Marie-France,” he says, using a French enunciation of the latter’s name.
he says there are also underwearr from each other other two women—the sexual assault victims.
[11:29 AM]
Smyth says Comeau’s name. Williams says there was an open window in the basement when she wasn’t home. He returned another night when she was on the home. She distrubed me downstaris. She was trying to get the cat upstaris, but it was fixated on me. She came down toward me, I guess because she wanted to figure out what the cat was staring at.
When she spotted me, by the same flashlight i subdued her, tied her up, brought her upstairs. Pause. “And strangled her later on. Or suffocated her.” He shifts, sighs, “with some tape.”
Smyth asks how is subdued her. Williams says with the flashlight. “I hit her a couple of times around her head trying to knock her out. Didn’t. But she was bleeding a little bit. Eventually through a struggle subdued her.” He looks at the ground, arms crossed. Williams says he had been hiding behind the furnace, and she didn’t recognize him because he had stuff on his face.
He looks down, nods, then looks up at Smyth, who asks about the suffocation. Williams says he “put tape on her mouth, nose and held it there so she couldn’t breath.” Smyth asks what kind of tape. “duct tape.”
Williams says she never recognized him. He had “just a cover for my head. Just a sport, pullover, cap-type thing. And just a headband over my nose and mouth.”
He says the flashlight is at his home in Tweed. “It’s a red, double D. It’s like a big, I can’t remember what brand. It’s a bigger one.”
[11:25 AM]
Williams says he saw her on the treadmill one night. He noticed another time she wasn’t home. When she came back home, he went in through the back patio door. She was asleep, but he didn’t hit her. Pause. “Well, so I raped her in her thouse, and then i took her to the car, and I took erh to Tweed.” He is looking down. pauses, scratches his neck. He is speaking quietly. Now holding his neck. “Spent the day in Tweed. I hit her as we were walking. She thought we were leaving. I hit her on the back of the head.” Silence. He looks up at Smyth, sighs. “Do you want to know anything in particular?” he asks, taking his water cup in her hands. “I was surprised her skull gave way. She was immediately unconscious. So I strangled her.” He says he hit her with a flashlight inside the house near the fireplace. He says they’ll find signs of the hit, mainly blood on the tile floor. “I wiped it up. But I know it can be easily spotted. Science will show it, I’m sure.” He says she was dressed, and that she will be clothed when they find her body.
[11:11 AM]
Williams is back in the courtroom, and the proceedings resume.
In the video, Smyth tells Williams that investigators are looking up electronic evidence all the time. And that this investigation will cost at least $10 million, and that anything the investigators want or need will be granted, no question.
Williams signs, puts his the side of his face in his left hand, looks at the ground. He is silent.
Smyth says he’s put his best foot forward for him, and that he doesn’t know what else to do to make him feel the impact of what’s happening.
Williams sighs, shifts. Turns to the right away from Smyth, rests one arm on the back of the chair. He says, “I want ot minimize the impact on my wife. How do we do that?” he looks at Smyth, who says, “You start by telling the truth.”
Williams is silent. Signs. “Okay.”
Smyth says, “So where is she?” referring to Lloyd’s body.
Williams is silent. He looks up and says, “You gotta map?”
Smyth asks which town is she near. “I’m not sure but if you give me a map that covers [an inaudible area near Tweed], then I’ll show you where she is.”
Smyth pulls out a map. Williams says, “You need a real map. A detailed map of that area and I’ll show you where she is.” He says she is not buried.
Smyth asks if Williams wants water. He says sure. His face is out of view of the camera, as he is leaning forward.
He leans back and says that Lloyd has been there for about a week. And that she was in Tweed on Thursday and Friday. He says she was alive for “almost 24 hours.”
Smyth tells Williams he is doing the right thing. “Again, my interest is in my wife’s life. I’ll tell you everything, and where my SIM cards are.
He says they are in Ottawa, some are in the camera bag, some are in his office in a filing cabinet. In one of the top two drawers. He says there is plastic divider and inside there are two.
Williams says that the cards have been erased but that he suspects polic will be able to draw images of “Jessica and I”. Smyth asks about Comeau. Williams say, “There may be images on there as well.” And the two assaults? “yeah.”
he says there are two hard drives at the hosue in Ottawa. “I can draw you a littl epicture of where they are.”
Smyth gets him paper, and asks if he wants anything to eat.
Williams begins drawing, and says that he wants to continue talking to Smyth.
Smyth leaves the interview room. Williams continues drawing. He stops when Smyth re-enters the room. He takes a drink of water from a white styrofoam cup.
Smyth pulls out a better map. Williams says she is 40 ft. off the road. “She is on the surface. In a grey something or other.”
“This place that my wife is in, it’s been a dream for her. So they can take what they need and leave her alone.”
He says it doesn’t matter if they move forward or backwards. Smyth suggests starting with Lloyd.
[10:44 AM]
Break.
[10:40 AM]
Smyth asks Williams how it’s going to look when people learn that he had ordered his subordinates not to speak to the police.
Fast-forward. Williams says he is concerned about the impact this is going to have on his wife and the Canadian Forces.
Smyth asks if there is something he can do for Williams. He signs. “I’m struggling with how upset my wife is right now,” he says, sighing, shifting from arms crossed and leaning back to leaning forward and staring at the table of evidence again.
“I’m concerned that they’re tearing apart my wife’s new house.” Smyth says he is too, and that will only be worse if the police don’t know where to look for evidence.
[10:31 AM]
Smyth asks Williams, “What do you want to do? There is only one option.” Williams ask, “What is the option?” Smyth replies, “I don’t think you want the cold-blooded psychopath label. I don’t see that in your. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m fooled. I don’t know. This is over. You can have a bad ending, where Jessica’s parents continue to wonder where their daughter is lying. There is a huge search underway. It will continue.”
Williams can be heard sighing periodically. His arms are still crossed, he is looking at Smyth, who asks again, “What are we going to do?” Long pause. Williams barely moves. He sighs. Looks down, emotional. Smyth asks again. “Russell, what are we going to do?”
“Call me Russ please,” Williams says, rubbing his moth, grabbing his ncck, looking around, puts his face in his hand, looks to the ground. “What are we gong to do, Russ?” Smyth says. The he asks if Lloyd’s body is someplace locked up. Williams signs, silent, arms crossed again. Staring at the table of evidence. Silence persists. Smyth asks what Williams is struggling with.
Williams looks at him, silent. He rubs his face. Smyth asks again.Williams looks at the ground. He sighs heavily.Silence. Stillness. He signs again, leans back, crosses arms. Looks around the room. Waits. “It’s hard to believe this is happening,” he says. Smyth asks why. Williams pauses, still, sighs. Smyth asks again. Williams blinks, swallows hard. He is still. Leans forward, “It’s just hard to believe.”
[10:23 AM]
Crown stops footage to tell courtroom that now an officer will come in with Williams’ boots.
Smyth says at the beginning he talkd about how he’d treat Williams with respect, but that “the problem is that every time i walk out of this room there are issues that come up. They are not issues that point away from you. They point to you.”
He shows Williams the match between the footprints near Lloyd’s house, and a photocopy of his footprint, which he’d just given to the police.
Williams leans forward toward the table where Smyth has the evidence. he says they are identical. Williams is silent, but nods quickly and slightly.
Smyth says they need honesty because this is getting really out of control really, really fast. Williams sighs deeply. Shifts, continues leaning forward.
Smyth says we called you in to give you the benefit of the doubt. but you and I both know you were at Jessica Llody’s house. adn I need to know why.
Silence. Williams takes something in his hands out of camera view. Stares. “I don’t know what to say,” he says finally. Putting the evidence back on the table.
Smyth tells Williams that his wife now knows what’s going on becase his homes are being searched, ahd his SUV has been seized. He says that both of them know that evidence will be found before the evening is over. He tells this is his opportunity to take some control, and that his opportunity to offer some explanation is quickly expiring. That the cops are applying for a warrant to search his office.
Williams sigsn. Shift. Looks at something again, likely the prints. Pauses. Smyth calls his name twice. “Russell. Russell.” On the second time, Williams looks up, almost startled. “Huh?” Smyth says he knows that Williams’ mind is racing.
Williams looks at Smyth and encourages him to step up now, rather than wait for the evidence to come out after without him.
[10:18 AM]
Smyth shifts to Lloyd’s disappearance now. He asks if there was ever any reason why Williams would have driven off the road and into a field. Williams says no.
Smyth asks if it would surprise Williams to know that forensic officers they examined tire tracks near Lloyd’s home, and then identified those tires as the same on his Pathfinder. “Really?” he says, lifting his eyebrows. Smyth says yes. “Okay,” says Williams.
Smyth says witnesses saw a vehicle near Lloyd’s house that matched his. He nods, and frowns in surprise. Smyth tells him the tire tracks in the field are very similar to Williams. He asks again if Williams has any recollection of being off that road. Williams says no.
Smyth shifts to Comeau again. He asks if there is any reason why Comeau would have specifically referenced you in some of her writings. “Not at all,” he says. Smyth asks if there is anything that would suggest to him that Comeau might have thought about Williams. “Not at all. We had one flight together. I’d go back occasionally to talk. If that’s the case, that’s very surprising.”
[10:13 AM]
Smyth is running through when Williams used his work swipe card to figure out when he was where.
He asks Williams if he is sure that he was in Ottawa on Nov. 24, 2009. He says he thinks so.
Williams smiles, shifts forwards, puts his hand on his knees, then goes back into his armed crossed position.
He says had dinner with his wife after meetings, and then left. But he can’t remember what restaurant, just that it was near where their new home was being built. He can’t remember who paid or how either. The meeting ended between 3 and 4.
Smyth asks again if that’s when he went out with his wife. He says he thinks so. He says that afterwards he drove back to Tweed. Smyth asks if he is just guessing. Williams says no, he believes this is what happened, that he kissed his wife goodbye and headed back to Tweed.
[10:11 AM]
When asked, Williams tells Smyth that he has Toyo tires on his SUV. These are the second version of those tires on his vehicle. They were put on in the fall. The dealership in Ottawa says these tires are very popular for Pathfinders, he points out.
[10:10 AM]
Smyth says that sometimes when people get stopped in a vehicle canvas about a crime, they get nervous and say things they didn’t mean. He says if Williams did that when he was stoppped last week regarding the disappearance of Lloyd, that he shouldn’t feel bound to that.
[10:09 AM]
Smyth goes through each victim by name and asks again, did he ever go to their house? Williams insists no. He says he hadn’t even heard Lloyd’s name until he heard it on the news.
[10:07 AM]
Smyth asks Williams if he has had any contact with any of the four victims (two sexual assaults, two murders) that would explain why his DNA tests might be found in their residences, but that he might not be telling the cops because he doesn’t want his wife to know about an affair or something. Williams is uneqivolcal: “Absolutely not.”
Smyth asks “Is there any reason why we’d find your DNA in those residences?
Williams says Laurie, he doesn’t know her last name, lives three doors down. That he’s never been in her house, but met her once.
[10:01 AM]
Fast-forward. Smyth asks if the police were to do an investigation of his background whether anyone would say Russell Williams did this.
He says no. “It would be very boring.”
Smyth asks straight out: Do you watch TV shows like CSI? Williams says he prefers Law & Order, but he does watch CSI.
When Smyth asks what forensic evidence Williams is willing to give. Williams asks what he needs. Smyth says footprints, fingernail samples, blood samples. Williams says sure, that he can provide that.
Crown is pointing out the shift in body language. Already Williams has gone from sitting back, hands between his legs, to arms crossed.
Williams asks Smyth: “Are you going to be discrete? Because this could have a very significant impact on the base if it comes out that I did this.” He says this stuff will go through “the rumor mill.”
He gives a saliva sample, and also hands over his boots for the imprint analysis.
Smyth asks Williams if he is concerned about the tests he’s doing. He says the investigation is significant. Williams nods, stares at Smyth.
[10:00 AM]
Williams says that when he got the email about Comeau’s death he was at home in Tweed. He says he had been in Ottawa earlier in the week for some meetings. “I seem to remember that I got this word shortly after coming back from Ottawa.”
[9:56 AM]
Williams said he met Comeau once before. He is describing the hectic flight schedule he has. He and Comeau were on the same flight crew once. It was around August or September 2009, he says.
[9:52 AM]
Williams says that on Friday after Lloyd was last heard from he was home most of the day. Previously had head that he said he had the stomach flu. He says he left Tweed to sleep at the air force base just before bedtime. He says he’d been in Tweed all week. “Yeah, I think that’s the case. Flew Saturday. Headed to Ottawa that night.”
Thursday night he slept in Tweed. During that day he was at the base, he says. “I think it was a fairly standard day.”
He says he left the base, pauses, “I don’t remember anything peculiar, so I would say seven to nine, somewhere in that range.
[9:49 AM]
Williams acknowledges that Comeau was one of his subordinates when Smyth is outlining the crimes.
He acknowledges that he had heard about some of the crimes.
Williams agrees that there is a connection between where he lives and works and the crimes—he lived near some of the places where crime occurred, and worked where Comeau did.
[9:46 AM]
Smyth tells Williams that police are investigating four occurrences—the two sexual assaults, and the two murders.
Williams, nods, chews his gum, grunts in acknowledgement, and says “yes, yeah, yeah,” as Smyth outlines those crimes.
Smyth tells him the charges that police are looking at laying, whether it’s him or somebody else. That’s why he wants to make sure that Williams feels he can speak to a lawyer whenever he wants.
Smyth asks if Williams if he has a lawyer. Williams says he has a realty lawyer. He says there is no reason he wants to call a lawyer now.
[9:42 AM]
The video footage begins. Williams is wearing a yellow and black snow jacket, jeans, and a blue and white-striped polo.
He chewing gum, and when asked by the detective if he has ever been questioned before, he says never, and smiles up to the camera.
The crown reiterates that Williams said that he was glad the police were doing such thorough checks. He is calm.
Smyth says he hopes Williams can appreciate there is a lot of big news, and that’s why the police are fast-forwarding the investigation. He tells Williams the interview is going to be thorough for efficiency’s sake.
When asked, Williams says he is a coffee guy, and that he appreciates the offer for some.
Smyth reads Williams his rights.
[9:40 AM]
Crown Lee Burgess sets up what the court will hear and see today: In the afternoon of Feb. 7, 2010 Williams was invited to the Ottawa police station to speak with Det. Sgt. Jim Smyth. Williams had spent the morning photographing the items he’d stolen and preparing to discard some of them.
Williams arrived just after 3PM. He confessed around 7 PM, and that continued on until about 1 AM. At that point he took police to Jessica Lloyd’s body.
[9:37 AM]
Williams is led into the court. Like yesterday, his lawyers whispers something to him, he nodds, sits down.
Judge enters. All rise.
He clarifies that at the conclusion of yesterday he found Williams guilty of murders, break and enters, confinement and sexual assaults.
[9:32 AM]
Routine announcement by officer that the proceedings are about to begin, and warning not to video record or take photos of evidence.
[9:26 AM]
Today the court will be hearing the confession made by Russell Williams to Ottawa police in February. There will also be video footage shown of the confession.
The lawyers have filed in court. Still many reporters and members of the public jammed in too.
No judge. No Williams. Yet.