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  That the SJPF officially viewed Dennis Oland as the suspect in his father’s murder would be confirmed in the media only in May 2013, but the implications of the search of his residence and vehicle were fairly obvious. On the surface, Dennis appeared to be an unlikely candidate for murder. But the theory of the Crown, once a charge had been laid, was that “Anyone is capable of doing bad things.”40 In contrast, Dennis Oland’s family, as well as friends and associates, remained steadfast from day one in their belief that Richard’s killer had escaped justice. This would create a somewhat unique situation, in that those who believed Dennis was indeed guilty either did not attend the judicial proceedings or kept a low profile. Things were different in the more anonymous word of social media. In 2013, for example, after the arrest of Dennis, “Kennebecasis Bay Sailor” who earlier had posted on the Sailing Anarchy website about how Richard had “grabbed him off a wharf” as a boy thirty years earlier for a run on his E22 (Etchells) sailboat, made the following comment: “Good to see an arrest finally. Even the wealthy deserve justice.”41 But in contrast to many assault and homicide prosecutions, there would be no evidence of warring parties in the public gallery or corridor at court. This point was driven home to the author one day in a break in the proceedings, when a spectator turned to ask: “Excuse me, can I ask you a question? Who is here for the victim?”

  * * *

  1April Cunningham, “Police chief remained confident during investigation,” Times & Transcript, Nov. 14, 2013, B4.

  2Jacques Poitras, Irving vs. Irving: Canada's Feuding Billionaires and the Stories They Won't Tell (Toronto: Viking, 2014): 61, 65, 72; Sandra Martin, “Jack Irving, 78, Businessman, Philanthropist,” Globe and Mail, July 14, 2010; Kim MacRael, “Kidnappings for ransom rare, but dangerous,’” Globe and Mail, July 18, 2011.

  3Tamsin McMahon, “Mystery brewing around Dick Oland’s murder,” National Post, July 24, 2011.

  4Josh O’Kane, “Killing brings Oland’s name into spotlight after a decade of winding down,” Globe and Mail, July 19, 2011. See also, Köhler, Nicholas Köhler, “Murder and a maritime dynasty,” Macleans.ca, July 28, 2011, http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/murder-and-a-maritime-dynasty/; Bruce Livesey, “Company Province, Provincial Company,” Report on Business, Feb. 26, 2016.

  5[“Richard Henry Oland,”] Brenan’s Funeral Home webpage, July 2011.

  6McMahon, “Mystery brewing around Dick Oland’s murder.”

  7Geoff Bird and Sabrina Doyle, “Oland remembered as consummate businessman,” Telegraph-Journal, July 9, 2011, B1.

  8Mark Iype and Natalie Stechyson, “‘Death shocks friends, Dick Oland,’” Telegraph-Journal, July 8, 2011, A1.

  9Eric Andrew-Gee, “Murder in the family: Business Dynasties Are Torn Apart by Money and Rivalry All the Time: Dick and Dennis Oland were in a league of their own,” Report on Business Magazine, April 1, 2016.

  10Interview with David Lutz, March 8, 2016.

  11Josh O’Kane, “Oland investigation puts Saint John in eerie calm,” Globe and Mail, July 21, 2011.

  12Tina Hotton Mahony, “Homicide in Canada 2010,” Juristat, 2011, Statistics Canada: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2011001/article/11561-eng.pdf

  13Curt R. Bartol and Anne M. Bartol, Criminal Behaviour: A Popular Approach, 9th edition (Toronto: Prentice Hall, 2011), 292.

  14Cause No. SJCR-2-2015, In The Court of Queen’s Bench of New Brunswick Trial Division Judicial District of Saint John between: Her Majesty the Queen Applicant and Dennis James Oland Respondent Jury Instruction (Final) Delivered by: The Honourable Mr. Justice John J. Walsh at: Saint John, NB Crown Counsel: P. J. Veniot Q.C., Patrick Wilbur, and Derek Weaver, Defence Counsel: Gary A. Miller Q.C., Alan D. Gold, and James R. McConnell, 43. (Hereafter, Jury Instructions (Final).

  15Testimony of Staff Sergeant David Brooker, Oct. 28, 2015.

  16Testimony of Sergeant Mark Smith, Oct. 7, 2015.

  17R. v. Dennis James Oland, Final Post-Mortem Report, Richard Oland, July 8, 2011, Exhibit P-59.

  18Val Streeter to Justice Jack Walsh, Jan. 8, 2016.

  19Barry A. J. Fisher, Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation, Seventh Edition (New York: CRC Press, 2003), 4.

  20Interview with David Lutz, March 8, 2016.

  21Affidavit, Court of Queen’s Bench, Constable Stacy Humphrey, July 9, 2011.

  22Police Executive Research Forum, Future Trends in Policing (Washington: PERF, 2014), 3.

  23Chris Morris, “Forensic expert details examination of victim’s body at Oland murder scene,” Daily Gleaner, Oct. 3, 2015, A3.

  24Testimony, Oland trial, Nov. 5, 2015.

  25Chris Morris, “Inside the Oland investigation,” Daily Gleaner, Sept. 14, 2013, A3; “Oland trial heads into tenth week,” Daily Gleaner, Nov. 16, 2015, A3.

  26“Dick Oland 1941–2011,” Telegraph-Journal, July 13, 2011, A8.

  27Vibrant Communities Saint John and the Saint John Human Development Council, A Poverty Outline for Saint John, NB, August 2014.

  28CP, “New Brunswick Business Community Shocked by Oland’s death,” CTV News, July 8, 2011.

  29CBC, “N.B. businessman Oland’s funeral draws hundreds,” CBC News New Brunswick, July 12, 2011.

  30O’Kane, “Killing brings Oland’s name into spotlight.”

  31Eric Andrew-Gee, “Murder in the family.”

  32Julian Sher, “The inscrutable murder of a magnate,” Globe and Mail, Oct. 15, 2011.

  33R v. Dennis James Oland, Agreed upon statement of fact, Exhibit P102, Oct. 29, 2015, C1.

  34Robert Jones, “Irvings lose truck licensing bid,” Globe and Mail, Oct. 25, 1989, B1.

  35Natalie Stechyson, “Death called tragic, senseless; Hundreds turn out to mourn businessman and community leader Richard Oland at service in Rothesay,” Telegraph-Journal, July 13, 2011.

  36Kâté Braydon, “Capturing a Moment,” Telegraph-Journal, Jan. 1, 2014, C1.

  37CP, “Cops search son’s home in Oland Slaying,” Halifax Chronicle-Herald, July 15, 2011, A1.

  38Chris Morris, “Forensics officer concerned about washroom near Oland murder scene,” Telegraph-Journal, Oct. 7, 2015, A1, A4.

  39McMahon, “Mystery brewing around Dick Oland’s murder.”

  40R. v. Dennis James Oland, Opening address, P. J. Veniot, Oland trial, Sept 16, 2015.

  41“Justice delayed or denied?” Sailing Anarchy website, https://sailinganarchy.com/tag/dick-oland/, posted on November 18, 2013.

  Chapter 4

  The Early Investigation

  July 15, 2011–December 2012

  Following Richard Oland’s murder, the lack of an arrest, and the search of Dennis’s home and vehicle, the Oland family naturally valued their privacy. The National Post of July 24, 2011, reported that the family was not responding to media requests and had hired private security to watch both the home on Gondola Point Road and Richard and Constance’s secluded residence on Almon Lane. It was revealed during the preliminary inquiry of 2014 that at least one private investigator was working on behalf of the family soon after the murder. One rare family comment came from Dennis’s mother-in-law, Esther Andrik: “It’s been very hard on them, very hard….They’re getting a lot of calls. It’s depressing not knowing what and how.” Andrik cautioned the public not to rush to judgment and explained the intense media interest in terms of the family’s prominence. She described Dennis as “a really nice person” and his whole family as “very nice people.”1

  Over the next eighteen months, the investigation proceeded slowly, largely because of the SJPF’s need to assure Crown attorneys that there wa
s sufficient evidence to lay a charge. Without having insider knowledge, it is impossible to know if the police chief and the MCU were also worried about the legal resources that the suspect and his family could bring to bear once a charge was laid. The MCU usually responded to one hundred “dead on arrivals” each year but in the case of homicides, victims and suspects were usually poor or working class and often criminally involved. The SJPF was probably unprepared for the detailed and thorough push back of Oland’s legal team.2 In a largely circumstantial-evidence case, it was important to test, and in some cases re-test, seized items for forensic identification. As was later revealed, the investigation also sought the advice of outside organizations and individuals. In the fall of 2011, with the retirement of Const. Rick Russell, Const. Davidson, who had joined the MCU just before the discovery of Oland’s body, became lead investigator in the case. Although a twelve-year veteran of the SJPF who had served five years with the RCMP Proceeds of Crime unit, Davidson’s relative lack of experience with homicide investigations would be exploited by the defence during the preliminary inquiry and trial. The other notable development in this period was an unprecedented legal battle by media outlets to unseal affidavits and other documents pertaining to search warrants. Both the Crown and the yet-to-be-charged (or publicly named) suspect contested these applications, for different reasons.

  The class dynamics of the investigation continued to be apparent. Former mayor Norm McFarlane (also a former PC MLA and cabinet minister) was supportive of the police but seemed to suggest that in Saint John, not all families are created equally: “They can’t have a mistake with something like this. With a family like the Olands they’ve got to be absolutely sure.”3 The SJPF continued to be pressured by the media, politicians, and the public to make an arrest or at least show major progress with the investigation. Yet a departmental spokesperson explained that it was standard not to reveal too much about homicide investigations until there was an arrest.4 One common councillor expressed his frustration in the fall of 2011: “There comes a time when, for me as a citizen and as a councillor, I will have to ask: what have you got and why don’t you have what you’re supposed to have?”5 Witnesses such as Robert McFadden, Oland’s accountant and sailing partner, refused to discuss any details of the crime with the media because they had been advised so by the police. Constable Glen Hayward explained: “The type of weapon would be hold-back information we would never release….That’s something that would only be known by the culprit.”6

  Attacks on the SJPF by Telegraph-Journal editorials and supportive politicians appeared to be part of the publication’s broader assault on the public sector. The chief and the police union defended the reputation of the force, and even the New Brunswick Police Association stood by the investigation, explaining that forensic-lab testing took time and that Crown prosecutors had to vet any charges. In a July 2012 news conference, the association accused the Telegraph-Journal of practising “yellow journalism.” Citizens, by the time of the Oland murder, were already conditioned by negative reporting and comments by local elected officials on the costs of the police service and police pensions. In 2014, when in contract negotiations with the police union, the Saint John Common Council took the bizarre step of voting to explore the logistics and costs of replacing the municipal force with the RCMP. Mayor Mel Norton (who was a member of the police commission), purporting to speak on behalf of taxpayers, defended the decision, even though RCMP policy limits municipal policing contracts to communities under fifteen thousand. Norton would continue to take potshots at the police service in 2015.7

  The Saint John Police Force (SJPF), founded in 1849, is one of the oldest in Canada and reports to a police commission. The chief during the Oland investigation was career officer Bill Reid, originally from Cape Breton. Although the Fraser Institute, a conservative think tank, has criticized the department as being one of the costliest (based on population) in Canada, under both Reid and new chief John Bates, who assumed command in the fall of 2015, the SJPF has been involved in some innovative areas. In 2012, for example, it ranked among the top forces in the nation in terms of clearance rates (an internal police measure of solving crimes) particularly for assaults and robberies. As with any city, the daily concerns of the SJPF are traffic, drugs, alcohol, the homeless, and the sex trade. The city’s overall reported crime rates (with the exception of assault and sexual assault) are low by national standards and the rate for the Saint John Census Metropolitan Area fell by 19 percent from 2007 to 2012.8 Given the high concentration of poverty in the city’s several priority neighbourhoods, the department faces challenges that are more severe than in other parts of the province. It partners with other agencies such as the Kennebecasis Regional Police Force (formerly the Rothesay Regional Police), the RCMP, and the Canadian Border Services Agency. Social agencies, health-care professionals, academics, and activists were impressed with Reid’s progressive attitudes towards intravenous drug users, those affected by HIV, and vulnerable sex-trade workers. Professor Mary Ann Campbell of UNB Saint John attributes the high clearance rates to the department’s embrace of “crime mapping,” studying crime and public hot spots, and deploying resources accordingly. Like other police services, the SJPF is confident that new technology can make crime prevention and detection more efficient. But public safety, in the words of Chief Bates, “comes with a cost.”9

  According to the famous American lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who was involved in the O. J. Simpson case, “a mountain of evidence” is not always necessary to secure a conviction.10 Yet, to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt in a case where there are no eyewitnesses or incriminating wiretaps, body-pack recordings, or jailhouse conversations, the police require compelling tangible evidence. And in the Oland investigation this was reflected by a flurry of activity in the summer of 2011, when the SJPF applied for and executed a series of search warrants and production orders, and began to send seized articles for forensic testing to the RCMP lab in Halifax. (Production orders, similar to search warrants, are judicial orders requiring a person or organization not under investigation to surrender documents or other information such as banking and phone records.)

  In July 15, 2011, Justice Grant issued production orders for the call-detail records for Dennis Oland’s cellphone and call data, cell-tower data, and GPS information for Diana Sedlacek’s phone. On July 20, Judge McCarroll granted a search warrant and a general warrant for the sailboat Loki located at the RKYC in Millidgeville. During his July 7 interview, for some reason Dennis was not asked about his whereabouts that morning, but CIBC Wood Gundy staff told police he had been working on a boat and RKYC members confirmed seeing him there, acting normally. The sailboat and the waters around it were an obvious location for the disposal of evidence, including bloody clothing. For several hours on July 21, the SJPF, assisted by a diver, searched the vessel and surrounding waters and removed more than thirty items from the boat.11 At the preliminary hearing held in 2014, a forensic-identification officer revealed that the items seized at the yacht club revealed no trace evidence linked to the murder.

  As mentioned earlier, the rumour in the community in the days that followed was that the murder weapon had been a hammer, an axe, or a hatchet. The latter two are not commonly found in business offices, although the former is sometimes in a drawer or a tool box. Even before the 2014 preliminary inquiry, whose proceedings were under a publication ban, it was apparent that some within the SJPF had been speculating that the weapon was a drywall hammer or a roofer’s hatchet. The former is a specialized tool designed for removing and installing drywall. The hammer edge is wide and flat, with a cross-hatch pattern (which appears to match the round, blunt-force injuries on the victim’s head). This allows nails to be hammered without the drywall being damaged. The cross-hatched pattern also creates a round impression around the head of the nail that more easily holds drywall compound. With the availability of utility knives, the hatchet end, used for scoring wallboard, is not as useful,
but it has a notch by which the hammer can act like a handle for carrying the board. Other possible candidates were a roofer’s hammer or hatchet, a shingler’s or lather’s hammer or hatchet, or a rigger’s axe. Depending on the model, each of these tools has a sharp hatchet end and a round or square hammer end with a cross-hatched surface. In the construction industry, most of these traditional tools have been replaced with nail guns, but they are still readily available for purchase in hardware stores and are useful for do-it-yourself carpenters.