Octavio Velasquez came to Canada from Colombia in 1972. In 1974 he was able to bring his wife and two daughters to Montréal. A third child, a son, was born in 1979. The family lived in a house in Laval. Mrs. Velasquez worked in the local Zeller's warehouse. On the morning of April 12 the neighbour who normally drove Mrs. Velasquez to work was ill, so Mr. Velasquez drove her there at about 6:45 a.m. He then told the Co-op dispatcher that he was driving into Montréal to look for fares. His last call came at 8:30 when he picked up his killer. As surmised from later evidence, Mr. Velasquez drove his passenger past Ottawa along Highway 417 to Exit 144. The taxi then proceeded to the McGee Sideroad, a little-traveled road off Highway 17 about 25 kilometres west of Ottawa. Here the killer stabbed Mr. Velasquez to death, wounding him at least ten times in the back and slashing his throat. He then dragged the body behind a screening line of trees, placed it in a shallow grave and covered it with brush. The killer then drove the cab northwest toward Petawawa. There was so much blood in the cab that it soaked through the killer's clothes and imprinted on his skin. When he reached Arnprior he drove down a dead-end street to an embankment above the Madawaska River. He rolled down the car windows and drove it into the river, after which he ran up the embankment and changed into clean clothes that he had been carrying in his duffle bag. A worker at the nearby water filtration plant noticed a tan Volkswagen Jetta taxi driving near the river. A few minutes later he heard a splash. When he went to the river to investigate he saw the taxi sinking in the water and the killer standing nearby with a duffle bag and a bundle of white clothing. The worker called police, who arrived about three minutes later. The killer told the police that he had hitched a ride with a man named Phil who was drunk and driving erratically. Phil had let the killer off at the top of the embankment, saying "the ride ends here" and then drove the taxi into the river. Phil ran away on foot. The killer was locked in a police car while officers examined the scene. When asked about the bundle of clothes the killer said that they "must be Phil's". However, in the pocket of a pair of bloodstained jeans the officers found a ledger sheet in the killer's name from a military credit union. When confronted with the ledger sheet the killer admitted to owning the jeans but maintained that the other clothes belonged to Phil. A search of the river bank revealed no footprints heading in the direction that Phil was supposed to have taken. The killer was a discharged private from the Canadian Airborne Regiment. During his three-year military career with the Airborne and the Royal 22nd Regiment he had made death threats against one soldier and participated in the gang beating of another. He belonged to a group called the "blood brothers" who engaged in bizarre bloodletting rituals and sported numerous scars from self-inflicted wounds. He was also nicknamed "Trigger" for his sudden, unpredictable temper. None of this appeared on his record and he was given an honourable discharge. On the strength of this the killer was hired by the Pinkerton security company and granted a permit for a .38 revolver. He was soon fired for missing a shift and turned in his gun and uniform on April 11. The following day he hailed Mr. Velasquez's taxi for a trip to Camp Petawawa. The killer planned to make a personal appeal to the commanding officer to allow him back into the Airborne Regiment. [Next column]

Octavio Velasquez. (Source: La Presse, April 15, 1991, p. A3) Mr. Velasquez's body was not found until June 9. In the meantime his family and friends traveled back and forth between Montréal and Arnprior searching the roadside. Soon after the killer was arraigned Mrs. Velasquez and her daughters saw him in jail and pleaded with him to tell where he had left Mr. Velasquez. The killer maintained his innocence. In May 1991, based on the lack of a body and on his honourable military discharge the killer was allowed out on bail. The trial did not take place until September of 1992. The Airborne regiment was in serious trouble although none of this became wide public knowledge until March, 1993 when reports leaked out that Airborne soldiers in Somalia had killed four people, one of whom was beaten death while in captivity. Over the succeeding months the Airborne became embroiled in a series of scandals relating to an attempted coverup of the Somali killings, longstanding disciplinary problems within the regiment, brutal hazing rituals and serious criminal offences committed by soldiers. Ultimately the regiment was disbanded. The Airborne's problems were known to some people inside and outside the military in 1992. When the killer came to trial his association with the Airborne was deemed so prejudicial that the defence successfully moved to have references to his military career suppressed. Photos used in evidence to show traces of blood on the killer's body were altered to mask tattoos containing regimental insignia. The killer was found guilty of murder on Oct. 1, 1992 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for ten years. This case is one of three which crossed interprovincial boundaries. The taxi belonging to Montréal driver Mohamed Beyh was found near Cornwall ON and Flin Flon MB driver Dorion Simon was killed across the border in Creighton SK.