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Police are seeking two other people, from
two other separate incidents, who may have information about
his disappearance and death.
The move comes 16 months after he disappeared and three
months after his body was exhumed for a second autopsy by
Ontario’s chief coroner’s office.
“We believe these people still may have information that we
need to make sure all the information we have is up to date
and accurate,” Sgt. Kristine Cholette said yesterday.
Grozelle was missing for 22 days in the fall of 2003 when
his body was recovered from the Cataraqui River in the Inner
Harbour near Royal Military College, after weeks of
fruitless searching by the military and police.
He disappeared Oct. 22, 2003, and his body was found Nov. 13
floating near the La Salle Causeway, at a spot not far from
the location where four people are seen in the security
video released yesterday.
A top student and basketball player at the college, Grozelle
disappeared from his dorm room while writing a school
assignment.
The OPP, which is helping the coroner’s office with the
investigation, would like to speak to the people described
in the following three incidents in hopes they can help
establish Joe Grozelle’s whereabouts and movements before he
died:
• Between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. on Oct.22,
2003, four people were captured on a video camera by Fort
Frontenac Security walking eastward in the dark, toward the
La Salle Causeway and Royal Military College. The OPP hope
they will come forward because they believe the four people
may have information that could help place Grozelle before
his death. Police have released frames from the video.
• On Oct. 29, a man at the Kingston Centre Canadian Tire
store took down a missing person poster depicting Mr.
Grozelle. He approached and spoke to an employee at the
store’s information counter and gave her the poster. The man
is described as white, about six feet tall, of medium build,
clean shaven, with dark wavy hair that slightly covers the
top of his ears, about 30 to 40 years old, and wearing jeans
and a Columbia jacket with black sleeves and a green or blue
torso.
• In December 2004, after media coverage of the exhumation
of Mr. Grozelle’s body, someone called the Kingston
Crimestoppers office and provided some information about
three people who were in a doughnut shop the morning of Oct.
22, 2003, when Mr. Grozelle went missing. Police believe the
caller may have more information that will help with the
investigation.
“We’re hoping these people will recognize themselves or, in
the case of Canadian Tire, recognize the description and
that they will call in with information,” Cholette said in
an interview. “With reference to the Crimestoppers call,
we’re hoping that person will hear about this and call in
and provide some more information.”
Cholette said the video stills of the four people walking
toward the causeway are very grainy.
“You can barely see there are four people,” she said.
However, she said police hope those four people will
recognize themselves and come forward.
The OPP are assisting the Ontario Coroner’s Office, which is
leading the investigation.
The information that police collect will be added to the
coroner’s autopsy. It’s hoped it will provide a full picture
of how Mr. Grozelle might have died.
Cholette said police hope the people they seek may provide
some answers that could wrap up a few important loose ends.
“It’s to tie up a few things, but we want to make sure when
the report goes in that everything that can possibly be
submitted is submitted and with these things outstanding we
need to try and reach these people,” Cholette said.
“They may or may not have information – we think that they
do, but until we talk to them, we won’t know.”
Dr. Jim Cairns, Ontario’s deputy coroner, said Det.-Insp.
Ian Grant, who’s in charge of the OPP investigation, told
him Friday he hopes to wind up the police investigation by
the end of March.
The autopsy was completed soon after Grozelle’s body was
exhumed.
Once the two reports are put together, the coroner’s office
will reach a conclusion on the cause of death, Cairns said
in an interview yesterday.
“The results of the autopsy will be released when the
investigation has been completed.”
After a first autopsy, authorities said Grozelle’s death was
consistent with drowning. The young cadet’s body was exhumed
and a second autopsy was ordered after the family pressed
for a fuller investigation.
The Grozelle family hired a forensic pathologist to
independently view the second autopsy.
Reached yesterday, Grozelle’s father, Ron Grozelle, said he
hadn’t heard about the OPP’s recent plea for people to come
forward. He said he couldn’t talk about the case.
“I can’t comment on anything about that at this stage,” he
said in an interview.
Grozelle’s body was exhumed last November from Greenwood
Cemetery in the southwestern Ontario community of Ridgetown.
Tests that would look for damage such as deep bruising
weren’t conducted the first time because pathologists
weren’t looking for foul play since military investigators
had ruled Grozelle’s death a suicide.
Ron Grozelle said he also felt the first autopsy wasn’t
thorough enough after going over the results with the
family’s own pathologist, Dr. John Butt, who is a former
chief medical examiner for Alberta and Nova Scotia.
Many puzzling questions remain in the case:
• More than a year after Joe Grozelle’s body was recovered,
investigators haven’t released the results of the first
autopsy.
•
The cadet’s body was found floating in the Cataraqui River,
yet a senior RMC official told The Whig while the cadet was
still missing that he’d be surprised if Mr. Grozelle ended
up in the river since he didn’t like swimming and wasn’t a
strong swimmer.
• His body was shirtless.
• He disappeared from his dorm room at 1 a.m. on Oct. 22,
leaving his desk lamp and computer on, and without his
wallet and watch.
• His girlfriend and family said he was happy and said he
had no reason to commit suicide.
• A week after he disappeared, a man in a boat reported
seeing a young man sitting under the causeway wearing a
hooded sweatshirt and light pants. Mr. Grozelle was last
seen wearing a hooded sweatshirt and khaki pants.
• The night before Mr. Grozelle went missing, a young man
matching his description was caught running naked through
the A&P store on Barrie Street in Kingston.
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