Charges in P.E.I. cold-case killing withdrawn because police lost key evidence | Hanomansing Live

Try not to be too bitter. That from the brother of a murder victim in Prince Edward Island after charges against the man accused of killing him were suddenly withdrawn today. Police arrested Todd Joseph Irving two years ago for the murder of Byron Carr in 1988. Today, the accused walked out a free man after a two-minute hearing. The Crown dropped all the charges because the police lost crucial evidence. I do have to ask you, and it's all over, Mr. Irving, how are you feeling? Oh, it's time for a beer, buddy. What do you do now? Do like any good Islander does, get a job, go to work. But this is in the past. I have to ask you this question. Did you kill Byron Carr? All right, I'll be ready to go. Yeah, thanks, Wayne. CBC's Wayne Thibodeau joins us from outside PEI's Supreme Court. And Wayne, you've been covering this case right from the beginning. You were in the courtroom today when the Crown withdrew the charges. What was that moment like? Ian, you could hear a pin drop in the courthouse when the Crown stood up to say these charges were withdrawn. This is a 30-year-old, three-decade court case. And there was so much relief, not just from the victim's family, but from the LGBT plus community here on Prince Edward Island, because the victim was gay, that there had finally been an arrest in this case. And of course, two and a half years later, we see these charges withdrawn. The whole procedure today took less than two minutes. Now on his way out of court, Irving did get a hug from one of his family members and then made a brief comment or two to the media. And why did this happen? Well, it happened because Charlottetown police lost key pieces of evidence. A knife used to stab the victim and a towel that was used as part of the crime as well. And all of this resulted in those charges being withdrawn from court earlier today. Here is part of my conversation with Christopher White. He was the lead lawyer for the Crown in this case. Certainly, this was a matter of tremendous personal and public significance. And I think that everyone involved viewed that it was important that it be adjudicated in a public venue. So for that not to be able to take place, it's really disappointing. And I can only imagine what it would be like for Mr. Carr's family. so it wasn't until August so like two months ago that the police told the crown that this key evidence was missing and in the statement they said a substantial portion of physical evidence could not be located police on the stand in July did confirm that the towel that was used to strangle Carr and the knife that was used to later stab him were missing but they also said that other pieces of evidence were that there were significant gaps in the way that some of that evidence was processed as well yeah just incredible to hear you describe that, what's the Charlottetown police force saying, well the police force is saying now that they knew back in 2007 when this case was reopened this cold case was reopened that the towel and the knife were missing but they hope to be able to build their case around DNA that was found at the crime scene and on the body of Byron Carr. We knew these challenges existed. This was 1988. It was a different time in policing. The standards were far different than they are today. And what we did in 2007 was we endeavored to look at what we had, realize the challenges, and look forward to what was available to us as far as tools were concerned to identify the offender. That, I would say, the work that was done brought us to the point where forensic DNA evidence was sufficient enough to justify the arrest and charge of Todd Glam. Now, Darren McDougall is the police chief now, but Brad McConnell is the former police chief. I had a chance to talk with him many times during this case. Many people referred to him as a dog with a bone. He would work nights, well into midnight and past, trying to solve this case. And two and a half years ago, when Todd Joseph Irving was charged, he got emotional as he talked about the work he put into this case to try to solve it for the family. So we touched base with him today as well. I certainly, you know, hoped that the forensic evidence would be enough to carry the day. It became apparent over the last several months. as we, you know, work through this, that the challenges are too much to overcome. Do you think you had the right person? Absolutely. So you have a cold case that the police and prosecutors at one point recently believed had been solved. You have an accused who has been in custody, from what I understand. The evidence isn't there to proceed on this case, to even, you know, test it in court. And so then I guess this accused in what may have been a crime motivated by hate gets to just, I guess, walk away. Yeah, that was the case. So back in July, there was a hearing to be held about whether he should be released into the public. And he was released. Now, we found that quite unusual. He was charged with first degree murder and interfering with human remains. But he was released under house arrest conditions. he walked into this courtroom behind me today with an with a leg bracelet on he walked out a free man today i asked him what his plans were he says his plans were to go get a beer and then try to find a job now we also asked police if they planned any type of review they said they haven't ruled out a third party review on how they handle evidence but they say things have changed from 1988 and how they handle evidence is quite different quite different i also asked the crown whether they would look at possibly bringing this case back before the courts they answered with one simple wording no Wayne thanks for staying on this story and for talking to us this evening about it CBC's Wayne Thibodeau at PEI Supreme Court