Thursday 24 January 2008

Unsolved crimes

In a perfect world, people who commit crimes get caught . . . get punished.

But the reality is at any given time, thousands of wanted murderers, rapists, robbers and other offenders walk the streets amongst us.

Dennis Melvin Howe is one of the hunted.

Thane Burnett, a Sun Media National Bureau writer, devoted a full page to the prime suspect in the haunting 1983 Toronto sex slaying of Sharin' Morningstar Keenan, 9.

The slaying of Sharin', whose body was found stuffed in a rooming house refrigerator, enraged police and the community as did the solved 1977 body rub parlour sex slaying of 12-year-old Toronto shoeshine boy Emmanuel Jacques.

The 10 days between Sharin' being reported missing from a playground in her midtown neighborhood and the discovery of her body, gave Howe, 42, ample time to flee to who knows where.

A charge of first degree murder awaits him.

Howe, who is on the Toronto Police Services Most Wanted list and RCMP Most Wanted list, was profiled by John Walsh on his America's Most Wanted television program numerous times in the 1990s and in 2000.

He has vanished without a trace.

If the chain smoker is dead, no great loss, but Sharin's family, police and the community who remember and mourn her death, live to see this cold case closed.

If Dennis Melvin Howe is alive, he would be 67 and squirming for the first time in years because Sun Media remembered the slaying of a little girl 25 years ago.

You can view aged enhanced photos on the Toronto Police and RCMP web sites. Howe's known aliases at the time: Michael Burns, Wayne King, Ralph Ferguson, Jim Myers.

Howe's photo was in the Sun's print edition yesterday, but not online, which once again raises the question: "Why are there no Sun Media subject photos online?"

A "most wanted" murder suspect without a photo is a lost opportunity. It just doesn't make sense.

6 comments:

  1. Do you really believe that this man Dennis Melvin Howe is still alive after all that was said by vanrijngo?

    RvR-VvG-BM

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  2. Based in what Vanringo said, It may well be true provided the man in question addressed his medical and dental issues .Because he had severely diseased teeth at 43, and my dental hygienist said to me, Your mouth is a window to your health.

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    1. You know, I've pretty much lived my life kinda truthfully and have had a few teeth problems myself, along with medical issues. At the ripe old age of almost 69 now, where Howe would be 72, if he were still alive, would say it's getting closer to ones end of his own life. I was just wondering if perhaps in reading this mouth thing being a window to ones health, wasn't really directed at someone else, say by one of these two guys seen in front of a art gallery back in 98.

      RvR-VvG-BM

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  3. I would like to know if the police have Howe's DNA and if it has been submitted to a criminal database? It is hard to believe that Howe hadn't (or hasn't) murdered again. What he did to that little girl is unspeakable and it is surely possible that he would do so again. Hopefully, he's dead. Chain-smoking and rotten teeth are good indicators that he is, but it would be good to know one way or the other. I feel for the mother and father, who although had moved on with separate lives, must still long for closure to this tragic time in their lives. I only wish I could help in some way.

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  4. I just dont understand that someone like him with a rap sheet so long didn't re offend or commit other crimes during his life on the run.

    There is no way he could have just lived all this time not committing any other crimes.

    How could the police not catch this guy?

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  5. If he is still alive,Remember he is a heavy drinker and lines up his smokes like a firing squad

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