Mississauga pair guilty in murder of former husband
Members of victims’ families raise questions about how police investigated earlier deaths
Three members of the same family were found dead in their Mississauga home over a five-year span, but the deaths of Bill and Bridget Harrison were not considered murders until after their son Caleb was killed years later.
Now, after a Brampton jury on Saturday delivered guilty verdicts in the disturbing triple murder trial, a group of extended family members are speaking out for the first time to share their concerns about the earlier death investigations.
“We are haunted by lingering questions about the investigative and forensic handling of the deaths of Bill and Bridget Harrison,” the Harrison and Blackwell families said in a statement. “We need time to process the verdicts, reflect, and determine the best avenues to address our questions.”
Two dozen members of the Harrison family — a group of siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins who have had questions for nearly a decade about how their loved ones died — steeled themselves Saturday as a jury foreman read the verdicts in a Brampton courtroom.
Melissa Merritt, a Mississauga mother of six, and Christopher Fattore, her common-law spouse, were found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2013 death of Caleb Harrison, Merritt’s ex-husband.
Merritt, 37, was also charged with firstdegree murder in the 2010 death of her former mother-in-law, Bridget Harrison. On that count the court declared a mistrial after the jury could not agree on a verdict.
Fattore, 40, was found guilty of murdering both Caleb Harrison and Bridget Harrison. The jury declared him not guilty of second-degree murder in the 2009 death of Bill Harrison, a charge he faced alone.
“Today’s verdicts bring some relief, but the pain and sorrow we have experienced through the tragic loss of the Harrison family . . . will remain with us, in our hearts and minds, forever,” the family statement said.
The Crown alleged the Harrisons were killed at key moments in an acrimonious custody dispute with Merritt, who had two children with Caleb. Police did not classify the 2009 and 2010 deaths of Bill and Bridget as homicides until after Caleb was killed in 2013.
The 12-member jury delivered its verdicts after 11 weeks of testimony, three days of closing arguments, a four-day charge by Superior Court Justice Fletcher Dawson, and three days of deliberations.
Merritt, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, hung her head and cried quietly after the verdicts were read. Her father sat in the courtroom with his arms crossed, eyes wet. Joel Hechter, Merritt’s lawyer, declined to comment.
Prosecutors alleged that Merritt and Fattore conspired together to kill Bridget and Caleb but Fattore alone committed the acts. Hechter argued there was no evidence Merritt killed or planned to kill anyone.
Fattore pleaded not guilty to murder, but attempted to plead guilty to manslaughter in Caleb’s death. He showed no emotion when the verdict was read.
Crown prosecutors Eric Taylor and Brian McGuire declined to comment on the verdict and whether they might appeal the decision on Bill’s death or seek to re-prosecute Merritt on the charge in Bridget’s death.
First-degree murder, which means amurder that is planned and deliberate, comes with a mandatory sentence of 25 years in prison without parole.
At trial, Fattore testified that he did kill his wife’s ex unintentionally after sneaking into his home in the middle of the night with a baseball bat. He admitted to the planned and deliberate murders of both Caleb and Bridget in an interview with police after his 2014 arrest — saying he killed them on his own, without Merritt’s knowledge — but recanted that statement at trial, saying the confession was forced.
“We are disappointed with some aspects of the verdicts,” said Jennifer Myers, Fattore’s defence lawyer. “It was likely difficult for the jury to accept that Mr. Fattore falsely confessed.”
Caleb Harrison married Melissa Merritt in 2003. They had two children together and were separated in 2005 after he was charged with domestic assault. Soon after, he was involved in a drunk driving crash that left a taxi driver dead. Friends and family say that by the time of Caleb’s death at 40 he had turned his life around and was a devoted and loving father.
Merritt met Fattore after she split with Caleb and over the next several years they had four children.
On April16, 2009, Bill Harrison died suddenly at age 64, while Caleb was serving a jail sentence for the impaired driving death. It was the same day Merritt and Fattore fled Ontario with the children in contravention of a court order that gave Bill and Bridget their son’s share of custody while he was incarcerated.
Bill, an analyst for Sobeys, was a strong role model to his son, nieces and nephews. He volunteered as a baseball coach and Big Brother. His family was devastated by his death, which was unexpected but not considered suspicious at the time. The cause was listed as “acute cardiac arrhythmia.”
At trial, Dr. Michael Pollanen, Ontario’s chief forensic pathologist, testified that the autopsy performed on Bill was not as thorough as it should have been and that it was his opinion Bill had been assaulted before he died. Fattore’s lawyer argued the original cause of death was the correct one.
Bridget, 63, was a beloved educator who worked as a teacher, principal and superintendent, primarily in the Peel school board. She was found dead at the bottom of a staircase on the main floor of the family home on April 21, 2010, the day before she was to testify in Merritt’s parental abduction hearing.
Her cause of death was listed as “neck injuries” including neck compression, but it appears police favoured the theory that she had fallen down the stairs. The investigation into her death “stalled, and then eventually stopped altogether,” Crown counsel Eric Taylor said in his opening argument at trial last September.
On Aug. 23, 2013, Caleb was found dead in his bedroom in the house on Pitch Pine Cres. Only then did police take a closer look at the deaths of his parents.
“Answers are important to fully honour the lives of those we have lost, and to help us reach closure,” the Harrison and Blackwell families said in their statement Saturday.
“We feel it is important to shed light on any failures or other shortcomings in the investigative process, to ensure that corrective actions are taken by the public institutions involved, such as the police, coroners and forensic services, so that no family has to endure the anguish we have suffered.”