RCMP Watch

Neal Hall, Merrett, B.C. (Vancouver Sun) - The commander of RCMP criminal operations in B.C. faced some tough questions Thursday about the police handling of a murder investigation involving three children found killed here Sunday.

During a news conference, reporters repeatedly asked RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al Macintyre why it took police 20 hours before publicly announcing that the father of the children, Allan Dwayne Schoenborn, 40, was the prime suspect.

The senior officer said it was the judgment call of the team commander, who had conduct of the investigation and issued a Canada-wide alert by 7:05 p.m. last Sunday for police to be on the lookout for Schoenborn as a person of interest.

That was less than five hours after the team commander learned of the triple murder, he added.
But reporters pointed out that residents in the community initially thought the father had committed suicide or was in custody, so they didn’t have to worry about their personal safety.

It wasn’t until Monday, when police released Schoenborn’s name and photograph and said he was a suspect, that residents realized he could still be in the community — or, after the notification delay, long gone.

Why wasn’t his name and photo released Sunday night, Macintyre was asked.

“I don’t want to second-guess a team commander,” he said. “I have to support him on that and I understand where his mind was at, and what he was thinking about it.”

He added: “People weren’t sitting idly about, doing nothing… It’s not  ‘Oh, we’re not going to bother and we’re not going to do this.’ He was following along an investigative process. A theory and a theme that he had, and he was doing other things that I can’t unfortunately disclose right now, in regards not to other persons of interest but of concern on this file, and expending resources in that regard.”

Macintyre pointed out the team commander is a highly respected criminal investigator who had to weigh the risk to the public.

“I can’t tell you everything he did that afternoon,” he added. “I know what he did, but I can’t tell you right now everything he did when he was first notified of the incident around 2:30 in the afternoon until 7 o’clock at night.”

He said the team commander was on a day off in Mission when he was notified about the children being found dead in their mother’s trailer. The commander returned to Merritt, then made certain decisions about the investigation.

“Keep in mind, we had no one else to tell us what had happened in that residence,” Macintyre explained. “Certainly he was the last one who had access to the children, but the other person who would have known about it was in no condition to talk to us.”

He was referring to the children’s mother, Darcie Clarke, who now is under police guard in hospital.
Schoenborn was looking after the kids while his former common-law wife was out. She came home Sunday to find the children allegedly stabbed to death and Schoenborn gone.

Asked how long the mother had been out of the home, Macintyre said a news report that she was only gone 10 minutes was incorrect.

Macintyre wouldn’t reveal exactly how long police believe the children were dead before being found by the mother other than to say “it’s not 10 minutes.”

Pressed further, he said the exact time is “holdback information” in the investigation.
Asked by a TV reporter if the mother was a suspect, Macintyre said, “I’m not going to comment on that… Personally, in my heart, I don’t see the mother as a suspect, but I could be proven wrong.”

The main focus of police at the moment, he said, is to locate Schoenborn.

“Our focus right now is finding him,” Macintyre said. “I don’t know where he is.”
The suspect may have headed into the bush or hopped on a passing freight train, he said, adding police could find no stolen vehicles locally that Schoenborn may have taken.

He also said no one has been charged and no arrest warrant has been issued for Schoenborn.
But Macintyre said police are looking for the suspect across Canada and in the U.S.
He said 30 investigators are handling more than 150 tips relating to possible sightings of Schoenborn, including one in Quebec, but so far police have no solid information as to his whereabouts.

He asked for the public’s patience, noting forensic investigators are still examining the crime scene and each tip is being thoroughly investigated as it comes in.

“It’s extremely unwise to begin to second-guess an investigation while it’s still unfolding,” Macintyre said.
The RCMP will make full disclosure of decisions made during the investigation when officers testify under oath during a coroner’s inquest or a possible court case, he said.

The 20-hour public notification delay was the main question on the minds of hundreds of residents who attended a public meeting here Thursday morning.

But many people left frustrated because the question never got answered or even asked — officials didn’t allow residents to ask any questions of the speakers at the meeting, which included RCMP, school officials, a crisis counsellor and politicians.

“It was a farce,” resident Steve Thomas said after the meeting. “It didn’t answer a goddamned thing. None of the people had their questions answered.”

He said he wanted to know why local residents weren’t told for 20 hours that the prime suspect may still be in the community.

“Why would they hold that back from the people who live in this town?” Thomas asked.
Thomas said he wasn’t going to send his stepdaughter back to school until the suspect is caught because of safety concerns.

He believes the notification delay allowed Schoenborn to catch a ride out of town.
Pat Lamb said after the meeting that there appeared to be a “communication breakdown” between the RCMP and the government agencies that failed to share information about the case.

She hoped the problems will be addressed at a future inquest that will probe the tragedy.
RCMP Staff-Sgt. Scott Tod told the town hall meeting that he was extremely proud of how quickly police and staff at the detachment responded to the tragedy.

Police from Kelowna, Princeton, Ashcroft and Kamloops are in Merritt to assist, he said.
Police were called to the trailer on Sunday, where the children — Kaitlynne, 10, Max, 8 and Cordon, 5 –were found dead. Tod said Schoenborn did not reside at the trailer but had access to his children.

The father was looking after the kids while their mother, Clarke, was out.
“The police never received any complaints from the mother that she ever feared for her safety or that of her children,” Tod told the meeting.

He said police alerted the public that Schoenborn was a suspect “as soon as we were able to determine that he was indeed a suspect. Because of privacy concerns, we had to ensure that before we release anyone’s name as a suspect in any investigation, that we can justify doing so.”

RCMP Const. Annie Linteau, during a media update Thursday, said police had been called by the Ministry of Children and Families to be on standby during visits to the mother’s trailer on Dec. 23 and Christmas Day.

She said the father, Schoenborn, wasn’t present during the visits.
Police were contacted again by the ministry April 1 to attend the mother’s residence, she said, and Schoenborn was arrested by police for an outstanding warrant related to a previous charge of driving while prohibited — he had been convicted of impaired driving last year and lost his licence for a year as part of his sentence.

He was arrested again two days later at the Merritt elementary school his three children attended. He was charged with threatening the school principal and a young girl student.

Schoenborn was released from custody after an after-hours bail hearing by phone with a justice of the peace in Burnaby.
Police had sought his detention because he was a flight risk, had failed to show for court appearances in the past and had previously violated a court order, Linteau said.

Last Aug. 23, Schoenborn breached the conditions of a peace bond that stipulated he could not visit his ex-partner’s home if he had consumed alcohol within the previous 12 hours, and that he had to leave her residence if requested by his former common-law spouse or police.

He had showed up with wine and beer at the mother’s home in south Vancouver, wanting to talk. In the fall, she moved to Merritt.

“At no time did [Merritt] police find him to be in breach of these conditions during their encounter with the children’s mother,” Linteau said. “They were not aware that she feared for her safety or the safety of her children.”

Schoenborn was charged last year with threatening his wife with violence but the charges were dropped after she recanted her allegations to police.

At the time, the mother had expressed fear for her safety, so the Crown convinced a provincial court judge to order a peace bond recognizance with conditions.

It is believed Schoenborn had been in Merritt about a week before the tragedy occurred, police said.