Where lights end, killers see a chance

That means most killers are driving into Caledon — a region close to 700 square kilometres in size — to hide the deed. “They go to the first place that is dark,” Leon said. “It’s not as bright as the city lights are.” One resident likened Caledon to the “wild west” — the beginning of the countryside, where streetlights end. But the community is also full of “good sheriff” types, people who stop to offer assistance when a car is pulled over on the side of the road. Even though Caledon is within Peel, it is the OPP — not Peel Region police — who patrol the township. Caledon Mayor Marolyn Morrison has credited the OPP with keeping the peace among the town’s 58,000 residents — mostly middle-aged married couples living in homes with an average value of $450,000. “Our strong working relationship with the Caledon OPP, and their commitment to the safety and well-being of our residents, has created a culture that puts safety first,” she said in a news release last month. But bodies still turn up overnight. Leon stressed there have never been any links drawn between the cases. It appears the killers were all drawn to the area independently, some with knowledge of the landscape and others who simply stumbled across it in the dark. Caledon’s rolling expanse is seemingly the perfect place to leave a body undisturbed, with sprawling dense forests and stretches of unpaved road devoid of any street or ambient lighting in the dark of night. In a wooded area near Mountainview Rd. and Beachgrove Side Rd., the body of 42-yearold nurse Sonia Varaschin was found by a dog walker in September 2010. Standing at that crossroads in the dead of winter, one can feel truly alone on paths layered in barely touched fallen snow. But to the benefit of investigators, bodies don’t stay hidden for long in Caledon. Though investigations sometimes lead police to wooded areas and the bottom of ponds, some bodies have also simply been left by the roadside. In the most recent case, residents seemed puzzled that Davison’s body was left beside what they say is a major north-south commuting artery. Dax Urbszat, acting director for the forensic science program at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, said such cases are probably the result of reactive violence, where some- one the victim knew acted out emotionally, perhaps in the heat of an argument.

That appears to be true in several of Caledon’s solved cases, where a husband, acquaintance or housemate was charged.

Urbszat said reactive violence is unplanned, so when “stark amateurs” are faced with the consequences of their crime, they can panic.

“Most will be in a state of semi-shock,” he said. “Many will develop post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of this reactive violence.”

Urbszat said the overwhelming motive of dumping the body is to avoid capture.

But of the seven cases of bodies found in Caledon over the past four years, only two remain unsolved.

“We’re talking about the type of criminal who isn’t well experienced,” Urbszat said.

Varaschin’s killer has not been found, and her file remains under active investigation. She was believed to have been abducted from her Orangeville townhouse, minutes from the Caledon border. Her white Toyota Corolla was found abandoned with blood inside.

Toronto escort Kera Freeland’s body was discovered in a roadside ditch in Caledon in March 2011, a month after she went missing. No one has been arrested, but her death has been deemed suspicious and remains under police investigation.

It remains to be seen whether Caledon can hold on to its “safest city” record another year.

To create its rankings, Maclean’s uses data collected by Statistics Canada from police reports in Canada’s100 largest municipalities by population.

Though Caledon’s overall crime rates are below the national average, the town’s 2010 homicide rate per 100,000 people was nearly 88 per cent higher than the Canadian average.

A homicide is counted toward the region where a murder is reported or body first discovered, according to police and Statistics Canada. Two bodies found in Caledon in 2011 were deemed to be death by homicide, on par with two homicides the previous year.

Some Caledon residents seemed unaware or unfazed by bodies found in the region.

But Leon said that for those who live near dump sites, or who are unlucky enough to discover the bodies, the impact can be severe.

“Realistically, when something like that does happen, it has a direct impact on the people who call it home,” he said. “Although they’re not victims of the crime, it does victimize them in the sense that their area is being targeted.”