365Gay.Com

Hunt For Killer Leads To Second Possible Victim
by Ben Thompson
365Gay.com Newscenter in Ottawa
December 7, 2002

(Ottawa) Several dozen people held a candlelight vigil Friday night for Christopher Raynsford the 35 year old gay man whose body was found in his downtown Ottawa apartment earlier this week.

Raynsford had been bound and beaten to death. Investigators now believe that he may not have been the killer's only victim.

Homicide detectives met with police from Kingston, Ontario, south of the capital to compare evidence from the Sunday slaying of a gay man in that city.

The decomposing body of Robert Earl LeClair, 39, was discovered in his apartment late Sunday night.

Like Raynsford, LeClair's friends had expressed concern when they had not seen him for several weeks, but did not call police. He was last seen alive at his job as a waiter in mid November.

"There are certain similarities," said Ottawa police major crime Staff Sgt. Gerry Sabourin, but each force will conduct its own investigation at the present time Sabourin said.

Sabourin also discounted published reports there was a suspect in the Raynsford case. "There is a person we want to talk to," he said. "At this time he is not a suspect, but he may have been the last person to have seen him alive."

Police spent most of Friday in Ottawa's gay community showing a picture of the man, described as a white, clean-shaven male in his 20s from the Montreal area.

Sabourin also said officers have determined there is no likely link between the killing of Raynsford and string of at least seven robberies and assaults against gay men in Ottawa over the past year.

"We've been working with the investigator on that file and we don't see any evidence of a connection," said Sabourin.

Kingston Police Det.-Sgt. Corcoran also said that while the two murder cases are similar, they are also very different.

Friends of LeClair said they have no idea who would want to kill him.

“I know a lot of people didn’t like him, but not to the point where they would want to kill him,” said Jamie Kelsey, who last saw him in September at a friend’s birthday party. “He liked to push people’s buttons. He was abrasive sometimes.”

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