He's Canada's most notorious criminal, both a rapist and a sadistic child killer. But is
Paul Bernardo also guilty of slaying someone much older than the school girls he's already been convicted of murdering? That possibility sent
Toronto Police all the way to
Kingston on Thursday to talk to the dangerous offender, part of a new probe to see if the killer may be a suspect in the slaying of
Elizabeth Bain.
She's connected to one of the city's most enduring mysteries. The pretty 22-year-old university student disappeared on June 19, 1990. Her car was later found covered with bloodstains, but despite endless searches, her body was never recovered. Police were still able to amass enough evidence to show she was dead, and arrested her boyfriend,
Robert Baltovich. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 1992 and spent eight years in prison. But many believed in his innocence and the verdict was eventually overturned when a judge determined there were too many irregularities.
Baltovich has always maintained he had nothing to do with Bain's disappearance and pointed to Bernardo as a possible suspect, after it was revealed the killer was active around that time as the
Scarborough Rapist. For Bain's long suffering mother Julita, it's a nightmare without end. She's convinced of Baltovich's guilt and thinks the Bernardo angle is just a red herring. "You know what kind of person he is. I know my daughter is dead, just to think that he was linked to her murder is an awful thought. It's just somebody to blame it on, you know. Looking for somebody to blame."
But Bain's mother discounts it all and is getting tired of the case that has now been running for 17 years - and counting. "It's like opening an old wound," she relates. "It is tough."
Bernardo's lawyer claims his client never met the woman and knows nothing about the incident. "He denied having any involvement in her disappearance and obviously no involvement in her homicide," relates Tony Bryant. Baltovich remains out on bail as his retrial nears. It will start in September.
Bernardo isn't expected to be called as a witness.