Mario Drolet
Rouyn-Noranda, QC / April 6, 1991
At about 9 p.m. on the evening of Saturday, April 6, 1991, a passerby discovered Drolet's cab stopped on Des Chalets road in Lac Joannes, about 30 km east of Rouyn-Noranda. The police arrived a few minutes later and found Drolet's body inside the cab. He had been shot from behind by a large-calibre weapon. The bullet had gone through his head and smashed the windshield.
The company owner described Drolet as a very quiet man who never caused any trouble. Contrary to procedure he had not informed the dispatcher that he was leaving Rouyn-Noranda, raising the possibility that he was taken hostage by a passenger.
The murder followed another violent incident on Friday when the general manager of the local Canadian Tire store was shot and seriously wounded by a masked bandit.
In June the Sûreté du Québec raided several residences in Rouyn-Noranda, arresting five men and three women and seizing a .22 gun and several sticks of dynamite. The women and one man were released, but the remaining four men were held for questioning in the death of Drolet.
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