In the Dock: Victims of Social Injury

By Pierre Marion

***FOR EVALONLY!!!*****
Reading this book, we are shocked to realize how a family can be broken when they are forgotten, ignored or judged by those institutions whose mission is to offer them support. We discover the true story of a tragedy that not only brought its victim into despair, solitude and eventually death, but also imprisoned his close ones into silence.
Fortunately, the situation of criminal act victims and their families has changed but only because they have let their voice be heard, as Pierre has done on behalf of his father and his family. But at what cost? The answer is in his book: At the cost of his fathers inner life. The day of the abduction marked the beginning of Charles journey into solitude which continued to deepen until his death. Being abducted and having his reputation and honor destroyed resulted into isolation, as if he had been dehumanized
After 40 years, I hope that this book will help towards re-establishing the reputation of the victim and his family, and that shedding light at the end of this very long tunnel of suffering will be their reward.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503556218

Pierre Marion

The author, Pierre Marion, has made a career in international development, which has included engagements in the Eastern Caribbean, West Africa and in Central America, where he remains. Pierre wanted to record the events and the communications so he began to record these 35 years ago. As time passed he felt a need to honor the victims who had to live through an unnecessary emotionally tortuous time period, and this story is the result. It is late summer in 1977 in the Québec Province of Canada, when a credit manager of a notable banking institution in Sherbrooke is kidnapped. In its day a $1 million ransom was an unheard of amount of wealth, and the abduction received international coverage. At the same time, a prevalent criminal profiling theory believed families or someone close to the family is nearly always involved in abductions and ransom demands. How did the family walk a tightrope of cooperation with investigators and protect themselves from having misconstrued events and comments become arguments for what might later land them on the bench of the accused? And who was feeding information about the investigation to the media, and why? This just unleashed waves of public negativity and other unintended consequences. And how could a chance beer at a local pub break the case wide open nearly eleven months after the abduction? Did it end the ordeal, or what then would follow and for how long? It is with this in mind that Pierre Marion, the hostage’s son had to tell the real story, as best he could. The names of most characters where changed so their identities would be protected.

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Copyright © 2015 by APPM2013 Inc.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015904586

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-5035-5622-5

   Softcover   978-1-5035-5623-2

   eBook   978-1-5035-5621-8

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Rev. date: 03/26/2015

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD

PROLOGUE

GONE MISSING

CHARLES IS ABDUCTED!

SOME OF THE KEY PLAYERS

ARRIVAL OF THE QPP EMERGENCY RESPONSE UNIT

FIRST CONTACT WITH THE ABDUCTORS

THE ABDUCTION

CHARLES’S PRISON

THE WAIT

THE QPP SUSPECTS THE FAMILY!

THE NEGOTIATIONS RESUME

THE DETENTION

ACCUSATIONS FROM THE MEDIA AND SUCCESSIVE FAILURES

ACCUSATIONS FROM LANGELIER AS WELL

PIERRE ASKS

MICHEL FOR HELP

THE FAMILY COMES TO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE ABDUCTORS

THE RECOVERY

THE ORDEAL GOES ON

THE ABDUCTORS ARE CAUGHT

WHO WERE THE ABDUCTORS

THE TRIAL

CLUES OVERLOOKED BY THE INVESTIGATORS

CHARLES’S WITHDRAWAL

LIFE GOES ON

THE END OF THE ORDEAL

CONCLUSION

EPILOGUE

SPECIAL RECOGNITION FROM THE AUTHOR

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS AND SOME OF THE RONDEAU AFFAIR COMMUNIQUÉS

FOREWORD

In 1988, as my work brought me to the Eastern Townships in the province of Quebec, Canada, I chose to relocate my family to Sherbrooke. We adopted that city for many reasons, particularly for its better access to schools for our children and its safe and secure living environment. Our family lived in the eastern part of the city. At the time, we were doing business with the Caisse Populaire Ste-Famille, a local banking institution. We soon heard about the tragedy that had affected the employee of one of its neighbouring institution, the Caisse populaire Sherbrooke-Est"¹, an event that was clearly present in the memory of the local population. However, the rapid tempo of our lives and the daily report of misfortunes on the news make us quickly forget the tragedies that befall others.

It is easy to believe when you watch tragedies unfold on television that it can only happen to others … up until the day when you are suddenly struck. In the night of June 23, 2002, our daughter disappeared. We spent ten days searching for her. Ten days of hoping and praying that nobody had hurt her, bearing in mind the story of young Isabelle Bolduc who vanished in similar circumstances and was found murdered many days after her disappearance.

Waiting, in the absence of any news, is the ultimate suffering. You come to believe the worst outcome. The story of the Marion family is horrible. Family members are always the first to be suspected in any disappearance or abduction incident. The remaining doubt is a real ordeal for the family, as great as not knowing if your vanished loved one is still alive. The sadness, the anguish, and the frustration toward judicial bodies all combine to form a secondary tragedy.

The stubbornness of some detectives in suspecting that the victim was responsible for his own abduction and that his son was his accomplice, thankfully, belongs to a bygone era—or does it? The book reveals the narrow-mindedness of the police and their lack of support, which had dramatic long-term repercussions on the family, particularly the victim himself.

It must be acknowledged that since the creation of the AFPAD (Family Association for Killed or Disappeared Persons), demands addressed to police forces and victim assistance organizations have all been positively received: the situation has greatly improved. Such examples are the creation by the Quebec Provincial Police of a family unit: the CAVAC or Crime Victim Assistance Center, open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; greater sympathy of the media in those situations; as well as the political representation of victims by the AFPAD.

The speed with which some media are forced to throw information to their followers often forces them to be very sketchy.

Reading this book, we are shocked to realize how a family can be broken when they are forgotten, ignored, or judged by those institutions whose mission is to offer them support. We discover the true story of a tragedy that not only brought its victim to despair, solitude, and eventually death, but also imprisoned his closed ones into silence.

Fortunately, the situation of victims of criminal acts and their families has changed, but only because they have let their voices be heard, as Pierre has done on behalf of his father and his family. But at what cost? The answer is in his book: at the cost of his father’s inner life. The day of the abduction marked the beginning of Charles’s journey into solitude, which continued to deepen until his death. Being abducted and having his reputation and honor destroyed resulted into isolation, as if he had been dehumanized.

After forty years, I hope that this book will help toward re-establishing the reputation of the victim and his family, and that shedding light at the end of this very long tunnel of suffering will be their reward.

Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu

Senator

PROLOGUE

In the Dock: Victims of Social Injury is the story of a family affected by abduction. It is inspired by events relating to the Charles Marion abduction that took place in Sherbrooke, Quebec, a French Canadian environment, in August 1977, as well as information gathered by family members, friends, journalists, and police officers involved in the investigation. The text is in part quite harsh toward police officers and the media, but it is a reflection of the family’s feelings in the very difficult context of one of its member’s abduction. These critiques are not meant as a negation of the overall high quality of the Sûreté du Québec (referred to in the book as Quebec Provincial Police or QPP) and media work but rather a representation of the family’s conviction that, in this particular case, the investigation and public opinion were badly directed and caused irreparable harm to the family. As a consequence of this course of action, the abductee and his family were plunged into an environment of false and mean-spirited rumors as to their potential involvement in the abduction. To this day, thirty-five years after the abduction and its full resolution, rumors of involvement remain. Though the crime was solved based solely on chance and the tenacity of an ex-prison guard, the public safety officials never recognized their mistake publicly and have not undertaken the necessary steps to formally restore the abductee’s reputation and that of his family.

The story was written by Pierre Marion, son of Charles Marion. Most of the characters’ names have been changed as the goal of the book is not to precisely detail the abduction but rather to share with readers the painful experience of an ordinary family, victims of an extraordinary crime, who land on the front page of all media at the top of the public list of suspects and rendered unable to fully recover its honor.

The book was written in French and later produced in English, maintaining its French Canadian spirit and geographical environment.

GONE MISSING

Hi. Pierre?

It was late on a beautiful August Sunday morning, and the phone had just rung at Pierre Rondeau’s home in the Gatineau area. Nicole, his wife, was busy tidying up the kitchen after their usual Sunday brunch. Alexandre and Philippe, their two sons, were playing in the backyard.

Four years earlier, the couple had chosen Côte d’Azur, one of the area’s nice suburbs, to build their house. It was not yet their dream home, but they were improving it as fast as their income allowed. Their sons, aged four and seven, spent a lot of energy inventing new games and practicing their somersaults. They kept urging their parents to make reality of the swing, slide, swimming pool, and patio projects they kept talking about.

Pierre was quite surprised to hear from his mother Denise at this time. She was calling from Mon Repos, the family country house. Charles, his father, had bought the crumbling farmhouse some years earlier. The door had been taken away, and farm animals that grazed on the adjacent land used it for occasional shelter.

Charles had an eye for good deals, having worked in mortgage lending most of his professional life. Throughout the years, he had slowly transformed the property into a small paradise that was the envy of all his friends. It was rustic yet warm and cozy. Stoke, the small village next to Mon Repos, was a less than thirty-minute drive from Sherbrooke where the family home was located.

The four-acre lot on which the house was nestled lay at the end of the road, deep in the countryside. It was surrounded by large poplars that Charles had planted to clearly delineate his domain and help dry up the lower areas where water was not draining easily. A small trout pond had been dug up at the back of the lot, and a small pen surrounding large boulders where a pair of goats were kept completed the yards. There was enough work to do to keep Charles busy every weekend, as well as two or three evenings during the week. He spent quite a number of hours on his riding lawn mower to take care of the large open area that also doubled as his own private driving range where his dog enthusiastically chased after golf balls. He fished a lot, using hooks with their barbed point cut off so as to be able to release the trout back into the pond without hurting them. He also devoted time to following behind the vehemently protesting geese, prompting the goats to jump from their shelter to the boulders and vice versa while encouraging his dog to run around. Over the years, the bond he created with nature and the care he gave to the animals that depended on him occupied ever-increasing space in his personal world.

Mom! Hi! Are you okay?

Pierre was concerned by this unusual timing of his mother’s call. Family calls usually happened on Sunday evenings once it was too late to enjoy the sun and nature. The day was glorious. The kids were very excited as they were about to leave for an afternoon visit at the Connollys’ who had recently put in a swimming pool. Both families had been close friends for many years, and they spent a lot of time together.

Denise told her son that the day before, she had attended the wedding of her cousin by herself. On her way back home, she had decided to drive to Stoke instead of returning home in order to join Charles at Mon Repos. She thought he would enjoy the piece of wedding cake she was bringing back for him.

When turning into Mon Repos’s driveway, she noticed that there were lights on in the house and in the garage. As she got closer, she heard the garage radio playing. She found it a bit strange to see that the dog had been left inside the house while Charles’s truck was not there. The dew-covered lawn showed tire tracks that led toward the pond and small cabin at the back of the property and then turned back toward the property driveway. She thought that most probably, Charles had driven up to the pond at the back end of the property, about a hundred meters from the house. She figured that he must have stopped by the house as she did, turned on the lights everywhere, plugged in the water systems, and then continued with the van toward the pond for a quick visual inspection before going back toward the road. The fact that he had left Jimmy, his British shepherd companion, in the house suggested that he was not expecting to be away for very long. Jimmy weighed almost as much as his master and, left to his own devices in an empty house for too long, he could have taken the initiative of redecorating the inside!

Denise had not encountered the van on the road nor had she noticed it parked in front of the house of friends or people they knew along the way. Somewhat intrigued, she drove back to the main road, looking for signs of Charles’s van either on the road or parked in front of other friends’ home. Not seeing anything, she thought that her husband might have gone as far as the city to purchase something he had forgotten. So she came back to Mon Repos and sat down with a book to wait for her husband’s return and left all the lights burning. At midnight, she still hadn’t heard from him. At one point, when going out on the porch to check if she would hear the noise of a car coming her way, she forgot about putting the dog on its leash or holding on to its collar. Jimmy used this opportunity to dash through the door and ran past her to the side of the road at the front of the house. Despite her numerous calls, he kept on running without looking back. She waited for a while, and getting even angrier, she decided to lock up the door and go to bed. Charles would be forced to wake her up when he would arrive. He would remember the reception she would give him! As to the dog, it could sleep outside as it had done many times before.

When she woke up on Sunday morning, there were still no signs of Charles. Thinking of an escapade, she decided to do maintenance work in the garden to show him, when he would arrive, that she was perfectly able to deal with the property by herself and, in her own way, to teach him a lesson.

While she was working, the neighboring farmer was taking advantage of the great weather to harvest the hay in the field behind Mon Repos and store it in his barn located at the end of the road. Further down the road, someone was levelling land and preparing the foundations for a new house. The various heavy machinery used for these operations was noisy and generated quite a bit of traffic in front of Mon Repos. Denise had turned on the garage radio just as Charles always did upon his arrival at Mon Repos. He said that it allowed him to keep up with the news and ward off loneliness. On this particular day, Denise also needed to feel less lonely!

Despite her bad mood of the morning, she was getting increasingly worried and around lunchtime, she decided to call her son to make him aware of the situation and see if by any chance he would know of his father’s comings and goings.

Upon hearing his mother’s story, Pierre was also somewhat worried but did not think something terrible had happened. Through his profession, his father had made friends and acquaintances everywhere.

Mom, when there’s a car accident, the police locates and notifies the family very quickly. So I’m pretty sure this is not what happened. He must have received an invitation from a friend, and the improvised party must have turned into a long and drunken hunting or fishing discussion. He must have decided to sleep off his beer rather than drive.

When there is no reason to suspect an unfortunate event and you are getting anxious while waiting, you first reassure yourself with more or less plausible explanations. Of course, in hindsight, you regret not having been more worried from the start.

Pierre did the best he could to reassure his mother. His father, knowing his wife very well, probably dreaded the welcome she was preparing for him. Perhaps he felt that delaying the confrontation was the right course of action. Pierre thought it was not the wisest decision on his father’s part but still an understandable response from his father’s perspective. He gave his mother a list of the hunting and fishing buddies he knew of and that she should call to find out if they had seen or heard of Charles in the last hours. He explained to his mother that they were on their way to visit the Connollys and that he would call her back later to find out at what time his father had made his way home and what the little story was! He also gave her the phone number of the Connollys just in case.

Throughout the afternoon, Denise got increasingly worried to the point where she could not take it anymore. She started calling her close friends to share her anxiety and let them know that if Charles did not make it home soon, she would come over to determine a course of action.

Force of habit made her go to the pond cabin before leaving. Charles had recently built it in such a way that it was to be used as an extra sleeping place. He had also taken the habit of using it to store the goats’, fishes’, and geese’s feed bags. Charles’s ritual before returning to town was to go to the cabin to feed his animals. So Denise went to the cabin, opened the door, and leaned inside to scoop some feed from the bags located next to the door. She jumped when she heard a vaguely familiar woman’s voice coming from the back of the room.

Mrs. Rondeau, could you please untie me?

Catching her breath, Denise entered the cabin slowly waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark room. She realized that the person who had spoken was Suzanne Dion, an employee of the Sherbrooke-East Credit Union who had been working with her husband for more than twenty years. Suzanne was lying on the floor, facing the wall and seemingly tied to the base of the toilet bowl.

A shaking Denise entered further into the room and knelt next to Suzanne. While trying to untie Suzanne, she anxiously questioned her. Obviously in shock, Suzanne was unable to clearly explain what had happened. But Denise understood that Charles and Suzanne had been attacked by criminals. Despite all her efforts, she was unable to untie Suzanne’s wrists. She ran to the main house to get scissors and call for help.

After having tried in vain to reach Pierre, she ran back to the cabin with the scissors. Suzanne’s wrists were very swollen as the blood flow was impaired by the ties. She said she had been tied to the toilet bowl since approximately 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night. Both Denise and Suzanne were nervously crying. Denise kept trying to slide the scissors’ blade underneath the rope while trying not to hurt the skin. Hindered by the darkness of the room, Denise finally managed to liberate Suzanne. She helped her to stand up with difficulty. Suzanne slowly moved her arms and legs to activate the blood flow. She was in a pitiful state, and the strong smells engulfing the cabin attested to the ordeal she had been through.

Upon returning to the main house, Suzanne went to the upstairs bathroom to wash while Denise started making phone calls. She called the Sherbrooke police to make them aware of the crime and get help, but their answer left her completely baffled.

We’re sorry, madam, but this case falls under provincial jurisdiction. Please call the Quebec Provincial Police.

Rendered a bit helpless by the cavalier attitude of the policeman, she called Éric Chaput, the son of a friend who was part of the QPP, for advice on whom to call. Chaput reassured her.

Mrs. Rondeau, stay calm. I am not surprised by their answer. Give me a few minutes to reach the right people, and someone will call you very shortly. They will help you and tell you what to do.

Almost immediately, an officer from the Sherbrooke branch of the QPP called her and asked her to briefly explain what had happened. He tried to reassure her and asked her to remain calm. He specified that Suzanne surely needed rehydration and care for her wrists. He, along with his colleague, were about to leave immediately for Mon Repos" Some thirty minutes later, they arrived.

During the drive, they had alerted their headquarters as to the potential criminal event. They also established a general interview canvas and list of points to be discussed with Suzanne based on the few details that they had. They needed to obtain the necessary information to ascertain that a criminal event had taken place. Afterward, they would be able to recommend to the authorities the first elements of an investigation strategy.

Upon their arrival, they started by slowly explaining how they would proceed to document the call and initiate the investigation. They offered to prepare coffee to help Denise and Suzanne calm down. One of them sat down at the kitchen table with Suzanne while the other took Denise into the living room to note their respective descriptions of all that had happened since the day before. They then inspected the premises and requested the help of other police units to perform a detailed analysis of the scene, take pictures, lift potential fingerprints, and obtain other details of interest. They were trying to accomplish all of that discretely to avoid stirring the neighbors’ attention at this preliminary stage of their intervention. Afterward, they offered to transport Suzanne to the hospital for a general physical examination and treatment of her still swollen wrists.

Meanwhile, Robert Mongrain, director of the Sherbrooke-East Credit Union where Charles worked as a mortgage manager, had arrived at Mon Repos. The provincial police had called to inform him about what had happened to two of his employees the day before. The event had all of the appearance of a crime. As both victims were the oldest employees of the credit union, they intimately knew the safety system of the bank, and the threat to the institution was very real. As Robert and Charles had been friends forever, Robert had immediately come to know more and to comfort Suzanne and Denise.

It is at that very moment that Pierre called to find out how his father’s escapade had turned out. Throughout the afternoon, he had not been particularly worried, and it was only upon his returning home at the end of the day that he decided to call Mon Repos to get to the bottom of the story. His mother answered immediately and asked him point-blank if he could come to Stoke at once. Stunned, Pierre simply asked if he should come on his own or bring his entire family.

No, come alone.

What happened? Can you give me more details?

Because of its rural location, the Mon Repos phone line was shared with other residences in the area. When an exterior call came in, the phone rang in every home that shared it, and its ring type indicated to whom the call was being addressed. From his mother’s tone, Pierre deduced that she was preventing indiscretion on the part of those neighbors who shared the phone line. Knowing that most of them spoke only French, she added:

Let me give the phone to someone who can tell you in English what happened.

A male voice came on. Good evening. This is Officer Jean Lacroix from the Quebec Provincial Police. It seems that your father may have been taken away by people with bad intentions, possibly abducted. Can you come over to comfort your mother as soon as possible?

Still in a state of shock, Pierre answered, Of course! I just need some time to pack a few things. I should be there around midnight.

He did not get any further explanation from the police officer who had just shared this horrible news.

That is how, on a beautiful