Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 17, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba B2 Magazine Jim 2001 Barbara Stoppel doughnut shop waitress strangled to death in 1981 at age 16 Thomas soph now spent nearly four years in prison for murder he didst commit exonerated by Manitoba govern ment and Winnipeg police last summer Justice Peter Cory retired supreme court judge who headed judicial inquiry to deter mine compensation for Thomas Sopho nows wrongful imprison ment and to review actions of police and prosecutors Greg Brodsky Sopho nows lawyer during second and third trials Winnipeg police Bill Vandergraaf a Lead investigator in Stoppel murder Case now in charge of major crimes division Rocky Pollack Sopho nows lawyer at preliminary inquiry and first trial Winnipeg police Wade Wawryk police officer who first inter viewed and later arrested soph now Winnipeg police Ken blender Lead investigator in Stoppels murder George Dangerfield retired Crown prosecutor for first and second trials Stuyt Ffirley Crown prosecutor for third trial Rick Stoppel brother of murdered Barbara Terry Arnold current prime suspect in Barbara stoppers murder Jay Prober lawyer for the Stoppel who Are also seeking compensation from the inquiry Barbara Stoppel Lay face up on the bathroom floor of the Ideal donuts her left Arm twisted in an unnatural Angle behind her there were signs that the 16year old fought for her a trash can had been overturned and blood was splattered on the Wall and a nine Inch string of yellow Green twine was wrapped tightly around her when police responded to the scene on the evening of Stop Pel was not breathing and her heart had ambulance attendants revived but her injuries were the twine was twisted so tightly around her neck that Para medics were initially unable to see the motive for the crime was not police found missing from the shops Cash but there was in Stoppels on the Stoppel family consented to donate her kidneys and bar Bara was taken off life Winnipeg was no stranger to violent crime in Stoppel was the cites 20th murder victim that but the circumstances surrounding her death shocked the it became one of the most talked about crimes in win Nipges hours after Stoppel police issued a composite sketch of a Man seen leaving the doughnut shop shortly before her body was the next the murderers mustachioed face glared from the front pages of both City newspapers and was broadcast on Winnipeg television the Man in the sketch wore glasses and a Cowboy hat and was quickly dubbed the Cowboy but despite the Well publicized sketch and dedication of nearly a dozen invest Stoppels killer proved twelve Days after Stoppel was More than 600 mourners mostly grieving teenagers filled Norwood United Church for her desperate while Keith Boughton tried to find words to explain How the life of a Young and promising woman could be taken in such a brutal two homicide detectives desperate to find a clue to her murderer stood at the Back of the scanning the crowd for a thin killer who May have a morbid desire to see his victim police had More than once interviewed the Man who would 20 years later emerge As the prime by the end of january the search for Stoppels killer fell off the front pages of Winnipeg newspapers and out of the Public despite a Cash Reward and More than the police probe was but just As suddenly As the Story it reemerged in mid March with Winnipeg police announcing they had finally caught the Cowboy killer in two Winnipeg officers were dispatched to the West coast to interrogate he was denied a strip searched and interrogated for More than four hours until he confessed to killing when it was the police could produce notes for Only 15 minutes of the inter the conversation want taped and soph now was never Given the Opportunity to read or sign the notes the officers at the he said he never actually the foolish police announced they had the killer from Sopho nows Greg said at the they were now tied in to proving the Case against soph now was built on testimony of Eye and the origin of the twine used to strangle evidence that at first seemed to be proved to be the key which would ultimately lock Thomas soph now in jail for a murder he didst in 1981 Leonard Vince and his partner canvassed More than 100 Manitoba business owners to see if they recognized the the owners of a Portage la Prairie twine Plant suggested police use a chemical analysis to determine the Vince recommended the test in his but police instead relied on anecdotal information from another manufacturer which led them to believe the twine was made in Roughan Tumble that information was used by Winnipeg police Bill Vandergraaf a Roughan Tumble cop now in charge of the major crimes division to connect soph now to the when two mounties from the detachment interviewed soph now in August they contacted Winnipeg police about the Babysitter soph now had Sopho nows name came up and did his Mug taken from a 1975 property crime conviction in when he was told the twine used in the murder had come from the West Vandergraaf remembered soph now lived in so he pulled the Mug shot soph now fit the general description of the the fact he was a Vancouver resident with ties to Winnipeg led Vandergraaf to Call the Vancouver police and ask them to interview soph now and find out where he was on the Public would never find out about Sopho nows Good deed at the Hope Vandergraaff carefully crafted Story became the Backbone of a police Campaign to paint soph now As a career criminal capable of Mur defence lawyer Rocky a former Crown attorney who represented soph now at his first said that when he first took the he found an almost unprecedented hostility from police and the vehemence was Pollack they pursued this Case with a Vigour i had not on March Vancouver police Mike Barnard arranged to meet soph now at the Vancouver Public safety build soph now said at the inquiry he was never warned during that meet ing that he was a suspect in the Stop Pel if he had soph now he would have demanded to have a lawyer that Chick Winnipeg police Wade Wawryk and de who travelled to Vancouver to interview soph now in March testified soph now told them he was in Winnipeg the night of the murder and that he went driving around and stopped for Coffee where that Chick got killed soph now described that first meet from current murder suspect Terry Arnold police sketch of murderer soph now rides in sheriffs Van Back to jail during his 1985 news reporters crowd around soph now outside courthouse after his 1983 murder conviction ing with Wawryk and Paulishen As a he said he was grilled for hours and repeatedly accused of Mur for no apparent Midway through the rapid fire soph now was ordered to strip and was subjected to a humiliating cavity search by the two by the end of the soph now would later Tell the he believed he actually had killed soph now admits he didst Tell Barnard or the two Winnipeg Detec Tives who would interview him a week later the whole truth about where he was and what he was doing at the time a killer there w8s 110 bathroom of certain to the Wear snout shop investigation on Goulet would be in his com uni Anri plete Alibi would not come out until everyone Well into his first involved in Athis prelim the Prosoco nary hearing in tied believed Early summer of a soph now m ii offered police the perpetrator first glimpse of that Alibi unable lawyer to see his Daugh Rocky Pollack Ter or find old he stopped at a Canadian tire store on Pembina Highway on his Way out of the City to get his car while he waited he made two trips to a Safeway store where he purchased two lots of Christmas stockings stuffed with Candy and Small that was All the judge heard at the preliminary based largely on the testimony of numerous eyewitnesses who described a Man leaving the doughnut soph now was ordered to stand trial for second degree but there was More to Sopho nows according to written statements he gave his lawyer in the Days follow ing soph now said he took the Christmas stockings to childrens wards of four Winnipeg that aspect of his Story was not passed on to police or Crown attorneys until Midway through his first murder trial in november Pollack said the relationship Between defence the Crown and the police was marked by distrust and the Law was different in 1982 before the Char Ter of rights and freedoms was enacted and before a landmark supreme court of Canada ruling the Crown was not required to Dis close much of its Case to defence lawyers before defence lawyers routinely went to trial armed with Little More than a general outline of the crime and the record of the As a Pollack it was com Mon for defence lawyers to wait for the preliminary hearing to get a taste of the crowns Case against their there was no certainty the investigation would be unbiased to everyone involved in the prosecution believed he was the per Pollack the police had done their own investigation acid discovered that someone Matching Sopho nows description had not Only purchased the but had delivered them to City the Cory inquiry heard that much of this information was not provided to the Crown or to Sopho nows defence at his first murder trial in novem ber soph now took the stand and told the judge and jury the full version of his the Crown countered Sopho nows Story with a Case that lacked direct or physical Evi there were no fibres or fingerprints tying him to the crime ill the Crown built its Case almost entirely on Eye wit who identified soph now As the scruffy Man in the Cowboy hat who left the Ideal donuts shop the night Stoppel was although now consid ered a frail form of in the Early 1980s it was heralded by prosecutors As hard proof of Sopho nows it would come out Dur ing the inquiry that investigators broke Many of the rules of proper wit Ness interviews and it All started with the Way police organized photo and lineup ident Ifica Pollack confirmed that officers showed witnesses a flawed photo As is often discovered to be the Case in wrongful Sopho nows photo was different from the others in the Mug few eyewitnesses were Able to identify so police turned to a ;