Suspect in hotel killing found dead
Police were looking for Terry Moore of Hamilton. He was found near École Georges-P.-Vanier
Students at a west-end school looked out a classroom window Monday morning to see a dead murder suspect hanging from a tree.
The body of Terry Moore was discovered outside École Secondaire Georges-P.-Vanier on Macklin Street North in Westdale by a staff member arriving for work, according to police. Students, some of whom are writing exams this week, were able to see the body and police activity in the yard at the back of the school near the basketball court. The French first language school includes grades 7 to 12.
The Spectator has confirmed the identity of Moore, a Hamilton Mountain labourer originally from Newfoundland.
Det. Dave Oleniuk of the Hamilton police homicide unit would not release the name of the deceased man because his death — which is believed to be suicide — is now a coroner’s case. He did say he was the only suspect investigators were searching for in the murder of Tammy Le, 25, of Markham. She was discovered dead early Saturday morning in a room at the Admiral Inn hotel on Dundurn Street, a short walk from the school.
Le and her husband came to Hamilton so she could work in the sex trade, Oleniuk says.
The husband was fully aware of his wife’s sex work “and he was concerned for her safety,” according to Oleniuk, who added that the husband was not Tammy’s “pimp.” Nonetheless, the husband left the hotel room so she could be with a client. “He was a client of hers,” Oleniuk said, referring both to the murder suspect and the man found hanged.
The married couple had a safety plan, but when the husband returned to the room at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, Tammy was dead. He called 911.
Oleniuk says the husband is “strictly a witness” and that no charges are pending against him.
He would not say what the cause of death was. He also said the couple had no children. This is not the first sex-trade murder at the Admiral Inn.
In 1997 a bus driver from Wisconsin who was driving members of a barbershop quartet society on a tour was found naked and dead after being robbed and beaten to death by a young man he had paid for sex.
It is unclear if Tammy and her husband regularly stayed at the hotel.
By 10 a.m. Saturday Oleniuk and Det. Ross Johnson of the homicide unit were at Moore’s home on East 7th Street.
They knocked on the door of Randy Thompson, who lives in the other half of the duplex.
“They asked me when the last time was that I saw Terry’s black Jeep and if he came home last night. I told them I came home late and didn’t see him.”
Moore had lived in the upstairs apartment of the blue, two-storey house for about three years, says Johnson. He has a man and a woman as roommates.
“Last week, he was out on the roof sunbathing,” says Johnson, who described him as being about six-feet tall, blond and a contract worker.
He does not think Moore has been married or has any children. He did see him with a girlfriend for a while last summer.
A man who lives across the road, and who did not want to be identified, said he had beer with Moore a few times. The neighbour said he thought he was about 30 years old and that he was from St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Police said Moore’s next of kin have been notified.
Detectives were looking for Moore almost immediately after the murder, although it is unclear why.
It may have been that Tammy’s husband knew the name of the client she was meeting.
Or it may have been because of the “personal items” — identification perhaps — that a stranger found on the sidewalk outside the hotel Saturday. Oleniuk said a Good Samaritan found these unidentified items and returned them to a home on Hamilton Mountain, not realizing they could be connected to a murder. Police are now hoping the Good Samaritan will contact police.
At 8 a.m. Monday officers began searching the ravine behind the hotel for evidence. Oleniuk says investigators learned Moore had sold his Jeep a while ago and believed he left the hotel on foot. There were no sightings of him or word from him after the murder until several 911 calls began coming in at 9 a.m. about the man hanging behind Vanier school.
It is possible Moore had been there all weekend.
“We had no indication of his activities through the whole weekend,” Oleniuk said of the suspect.
The police command van, cruisers and ATVs were brought in to secure and search the large crime scene that took in the side and back of the schoolyard, which leads into trees, a creek and eventually Hwy. 403.
The body remained at the scene most of the morning.
A woman identifying herself as the principal came out to speak with the media at the scene, saying only that the school would remain open.
Police said they were told students were taken out of classrooms at the back of the school overlooking the scene. Officers parked the command van in a way they hoped would block the view of curious young people.
The mother of one Grade 12 student says she got a text from her daughter at about 9:30 a.m.: “I just saw a dead man hanging in the tree mom.”
The mother, who does not want to be identified to protect her child’s privacy, is angry that students were exposed to such a sight and that they were kept in the school all day.
Her daughter, who wants to be a criminal lawyer, was there to write a law exam.
“It was so devastating for them,” the mother said. “There were police everywhere.”
Several parents have said they had to learn about the police scene from their children and not the school.
Oleniuk says the investigation is continuing and anyone with information is asked to contact Det. Ross Johnson at 905-546-3827.
We had no indication of his activities through the whole weekend. DET. DAVE OLENIUK HAMILTON POLICE