Peter Robert Joseph Whitmore, 35, of
Morinville, Alta., is named in an Amber
Alert Sunday. On Monday police issued a
Canadawide warrant for him.
(CP PHOTO/ RCMP/HO)
Posted on 07/31/2006 4:32:23 PM PDT by Clive
WHITEWOOD, Sask. (CP) - While police in Western Canada were searching for two missing boys and a notorious pedophile, a Saskatchewan town was left to contemplate how such an unsavoury individual was in their midst.
Mounties issued a Canada-wide warrant Monday for Peter Whitmore, 35, for the abduction of 10-year-old Zachary Miller of Whitewood, who disappeared a day earlier.
They said Whitmore was also believed to be travelling with 14-year-old Jordan Bruyere, who was last seen July 22 in Brandon, Man. A missing person's report had been issued for Jordan, but Winnipeg police were not treating his case as a kidnapping.
"We're still considering Jordan a missing person at this point, however given the history of the suspect he's with, we are very concerned for his safety," said Const. Jacqueline Chaput.
"The suspect, we feel, may be under the impression that he did have permission to be with Jordan."
Whitewood Mayor Malcolm Green said the whole situation has shocked the community of about 1,000 along the Trans-Canada Highway east of Regina.
"You can never tell what is coming down the highway," Green said in an
interview outside the local Co-op, where he is the meat manager.
"Probably we don't want to know."
Green said some people in the town have been talking about encounters they had with Whitmore and stories were circulating that he might have been trying to appear as if he were blending into the community.
"We had heard some innuendo that he was telling people he was going to buy a house here and would like to stay here and give the idea that he was going to be a community-minded person, but I can't verify that."
Kevin White, owner of the local Chrysler dealership in Whitewood, said Whitmore stopped in last Friday with a boy matching the description of Jordan, whom he called his son.
Whitmore had a flat on his 1988 Dodge Caravan with Alberta plates and wanted it fixed. He even made an offer on a used car, which was too low and refused.
White said Whitmore told him he was just passing through town while visiting his wife in nearby Moosomin, Sask. He said he worked in the oil fields in St. Albert, near Edmonton, "making the big bucks."
White said in hindsight, he found the whole situation very suspicious. The boy appeared healthy, but didn't speaking during the whole encounter, even while alone with dealership staff.
"I would have wished that he had spoken out," White said. "It would have been done, finished. We wouldn't be worrying about this."
"I wish I would have phoned the cops, because when you think back he was a suspicious character and maybe if I phoned in, the child and the other child would still be at home."
Police filed an Amber Alert for Zachary late Sunday night, about 11 hours after his disappearance was noticed by his family.
"Police detachments are on alert. Everyone has been notified, including police in other jurisdictions," RCMP Sgt. Tammy Patterson said in Regina. "We've notified the border and there's also a plane up helping with the search."
She said Whitmore, who recently lived in Chilliwack, B.C., has a wide-ranging support network.
When reached at the family farm near Whitewood, Zachary's sister would only say the family is "doing all right," before declining further comment.
Police said Whitmore and Jordan had been in the Whitewood area for a week and had met the Miller family.
In Winnipeg, Jordan's mother, Joannie Robinson, said Whitmore had become a co-worker and friend to her husband and was the last person seen with her son.
She said Monday she recognized his picture on TV: "There's no doubt in my mind that that's him."
She said Whitmore and her husband had gone to Brandon with Jordan two weeks ago to pick up a new truck. On July 22, Whitmore said he had left $2,000 behind in Winnipeg and had the husband go back alone to retrieve it.
She said Whitmore told them: "I'm just going to get my van fixed here in Brandon and I'll bring Jordan home."
Whitmore phoned the next day to repeat his promise but never followed through, she said.
"I talked to my son. I asked him if he was OK. He said yes," she said. "I tried to find out where he was, (but) he kept telling me 'Mom, I don't know where I am.' "
Whitmore has a long criminal record.
In 1993, he was convicted of abduction and five sexual offences involving four young boys in Toronto. He spent a year and four months in custody.
Nine days after his release, he took an eight-year-old girl from Guelph, Ont., to Toronto and was sentenced to more than four and a half years in jail.
Less than a month after his November 2000 release, he was found in a downtown Toronto motel with a 13-year-old boy. He was sentenced to one year in jail.
In 2002, a Toronto judge sentenced him to three years in jail for probation violations because he fled to B.C. after being found in the company of a five-year-old boy.
Those parole violations included the fact he was carrying a "rape kit" in his backpack while in B.C. It contained latex gloves, pictures of young children, tubes of jelly lubricant, duct tape, a sleeping bag and plastic zipper ties that can be used as handcuffs.
Whitmore was released on June 16th, 2005, after serving his entire three-year sentence and took up residence in Chilliwack.
A year ago, Mounties in Alberta issued a news release to say Whitmore would visit Morinville and St. Albert, near Edmonton, from June 2-5 of this year.
In a 2003 interview with the Chilliwack Times newspaper, Whitmore's aunt, Lynn Hopkins, said his father left him and his developmentally disabled mother when Whitmore was born. She said he had a Grade 7 education when he went to prison for the probation violations.
She said in the article he has since earned his Grade 12 equivalency but has the emotional maturity of someone half his age. She said he once told her, "I could never hurt another child." Hopkins could not be reached for comment Monday.
Zachary is four and a half feet tall, 70 pounds, with red hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing black track pants with a red and white stripe and running shoes.
Whitmore is six feet tall, white, with a heavy build, brown hair and blue eyes. He may be driving a 1988 blue Dodge Caravan with wood panelling and Alberta licence plate.
-
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
He gets his hand slapped each time he's convicted. Hey Canada, I have a permanent solution for this animal, call me.
And when they catch this SOB, he'll probably get another 3 years and some probation..
what a JOKE!
Canada sounds like a true paradise for pedophiles. I suggest they change their laws TOMORROW!
We all knew this was gonna happen again. He's a notorious repeat offender. Just string the bastard up.
Governments who do not execute child molesters share the guilt along with the fiends who harm the children.
Yes, we live in a society that victimizes children.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.