Forensic specialists with the Ontario Provincial Police have arrived at the Ottawa home of Col. Russell Williams, the former CFB Trenton commander accused of murdering two women and sexually assaulting two others.
A CTV reporter at the scene said about six plainclothes investigators went through the home's garage door carrying boxes and what appeared to be a large roll of thick plastic sheeting.
Investigators have also taped off the property and papered over windows in the semi-detached townhouse in Ottawa's Westboro neighbourhood.
Williams is accused of murdering Jessica Lloyd, 27, who was found dead Monday, and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, a 38-year-old Air Force flight attendant, who was killed in November.
Earlier this week, police searched the two properties Williams shared with his wife, Mary-Elizabeth Harriman, who works as an associate executive director of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.
Investigators pulled evidence from the Ottawa house that the couple had moved into only recently. Police also combed the couple's lakefront cottage in Tweed, north of Trenton.
The colonel is also charged with forcible confinement, break and enter and sexual assault after two other women were allegedly attacked in their Tweed, Ont., homes last September. Those incidents occurred at homes which are walking distance from the colonel's cottage.
Williams was interviewed Sunday by members of the OPP's criminal behavioural analysis section, the Globe and Mail reported, which led to police laying charges against him.
According to sources cited by the newspaper, Williams led detectives to Lloyd's body and provided police with a statement concerning four dozen so-called "lingerie" break-ins and two sexual assaults. Newspaper sources also say Williams photographed the women and stored the images on his computer.
None of the allegations against Williams have been proven in court.
Since the charges against the 46-year-old Williams were made public, police have acknowledged they are looking at his prior postings with the military.
Williams has previously been stationed in Shearwater, N.S., in Ottawa, in the Middle East, and at the Canadian Forces language school in Gatineau, Que.
Halifax Police have confirmed that three young women were murdered while Williams was stationed in Shearwater, N.S., in 1992.
Investigators are now re-examining those case. Police have also been fielding calls from the relatives of victims of unsolved crimes, who are looking for information.
Before joining the military in 1987, he studied at the University of Toronto. Williams also attended Toronto's prestigious Upper Canada College during his high school years.
Stan Sovka, who is the brother of Williams' former step-father, told The Canadian Press that he was shocked to learn of the charges.
His wife Madeline echoed that shock in an interview from Calgary.
"That's not the guy we know," said Madeline Sovka.
"We knew a very nice man, a nice boy growing up, no problem, very gentle."
She added that by all indications, Williams and his wife enjoyed a close, loving relationship.
"He had a good relationship and a wonderful wife," she said. "We just don't know if it's possible that he could be the one."
With files from The Canadian Press
