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| David Russell Williams |
People wear masks to hide their true intentions or feelings. We behave differently depending on our situation, such as being at work versus being at home by yourself. Some people you meet will be plain as day, and you will never have to guess at intentions because their mask is really close to their true selves.
And some people are just really good at lying.
David Russell Williams was a "shining star" in the Canadian Military, a model officer with 23 years of service under his belt. He joined the Canadian Forces in 1987, received his flying wings in 1990, and served as an instructor for 2 years. He earned a Master of Defence Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada in 2004. In 2009 David was promoted to colonel. He was described as an elite pilot, He had flown Queen Elizabeth II, the Governor-General of Canada, the Prime Minister of Canada, and many other dignitaries across Canada and overseas in Canadian Forces VIP aircraft.
This guy was the real deal, but the mask he was wearing hid a very dark and sinister secret.
David liked to break into women's houses, but that proved to be not enough fairly quickly. He progressed from there to rape and eventually murder. David would take pictures of his crimes and kept a hidden stash of them, including pictures of his victims, pictures of David wearing his victim's underwear, and pictures of David masturbating on his victim's beds.
If you have ever seen the series Dexter, then this stash will seem familiar. Often serial killer/rapists will keep some kind of way to relive their crimes, almost like something to hold them over till they can strike again.
No one was the wiser either. David's mask was damn near foolproof.
He had a wife, held down a job, he was even the prefect in his boarding school when he was younger. Sooner or later he had to slip up, and he did slip-up, but unfortunately, a woman had to die before that happened.
Jessica Lloyd, age 26, went missing on January 28, 2010. During the investigation, the police noticed some distinctive tire tracks outside of Jessica's home. After canvassing the area for motorists, they came across David driving his Nissan Pathfinder and took note of his tires. They were later matched to the tracks near Jessica's house.
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| Jessica Lloyd |
I find it interesting that at this point in the investigation into Jessica's disappearance, the police don't come and pick David up and take him "downtown" and interrogate him. They call David up and ask him to come by the station; they want to ask him some questions. So he does. No-fuss.
During the next 10 hours, David would tell investigators all of his perverted crimes including breaking into a 12-year-old girl's room, and writing "merci" on her computer before he left. He broke into women's and girl's houses, some girls as young as 9, and stole their underwear. Some of the crimes he committed were within walking distance of the new home he bought with his wife. He admitted to break-ins, thefts, and sexual assaults. Near the end of the 10 hours, David told the investigators about his picture stash and where to find it.
Finally, David admitted that he killed Jessica Lloyd, and identified on a map where he dumped her body. The next morning, David led investigators to Jessica's body in a secluded area about 13 minutes away from where he lived.
Eventually, along with the murder of Jessica Lloyd, David Russell Williams was charged with breaking and entering, forcible confinement, and the sexual assault of two other women in connection with two separate home invasions near Tweed, Ontario in September 2009. According to reports, the women had been bound in their homes and the attacker had taken photos of them.
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| Marie-France Comeau |
David was also charged in the death of Corporal Marie-France Comeau, a 37-year-old military traffic technician based at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, who had been found dead inside her home in late November 2009. The investigation into David's crimes includes probes into 48 cases of theft of women's underwear dating back to 2006. In the searches of his Ottawa home, police discovered stolen lingerie that was neatly stored, cataloged, and concealed.
Monsters don't look like monsters. Not the worst of them anyway. The worst of them look just like anyone else; hiding among the faceless crowd. The mask that these monsters wear can only hide their true nature for so long. Look hard enough and the cracks will appear.
In David Russell Williams' case, he definitely would have continued his crimes if not for the eagle-eyed officer that noticed the tire tracks outside Jessica's house. His crimes were escalating and probably would have gotten more violent as time went on.
Luckily he was arrested and jailed so we never will have to know.
