Thread: Canadian Couple Murdered in Mexico

http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Ontario couple slain near Cancun
OLIVER MOORE

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

Two Canadians were killed in Mexico as they prepared for their daughter's wedding in the sun-splashed country, family members said Tuesday.

Domenico and Annunziata Ianiero were found dead in their resort room near Cancun. They were “murdered,” said a relative in Woodbridge, Ont., who was grieving but could offer few details.

“All we were told is what happened and now the investigation is on,” said the son-in-law of the victims, who did not want to give his name. “When something like this happens everyone in the resort is a suspect.”

An investigation has been launched by local police, aided by Canadian diplomatic officials posted to the country. Relatives of the victims are being kept in the country for a few days while the investigation is carried out, said the son-in-law, speaking from his home north of Toronto.

“We're just waiting nobody really knows anything,” he said. “I don't think it's possible to imagine the grief.”

The couple, in their late 50s, was part of a large wedding party staying at a sprawling four-star hotel complex called the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort. In its promotional website the all-inclusive resort about an hour south of Cancun describes hotels called the Barcelo Maya Beach and Barcelo Maya Caribe and boasts about 1,000 guest rooms, more than half of them soundproof.

According to reports from Mexico, the victims were found dead in their room, throats slit but personal jewellery left untouched. Pamela Greenwell, spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, confirmed the deaths but said she could not give details. Consular officials had been in contact with the family accompanying the victims, she added.

Local press splashed the story across the front pages, said Fred Devos, a Canadian citizen who has been living in Mexico for 10 years.

Periodico Quequi, a newspaper from the state of Quintana Roo, where the resort is located, said the bodies were found yesterday morning after family members became concerned about the couple's absence. According to that report, there had been a party Sunday night at the hotel and phone calls to the parents' room went unanswered the following morning. Hotel employees opened the door at the family's request and found Ms. Ianiero on the bed and her husband on the bathroom floor.

Mr. Devos, who works as a cave-diving instructor at Puerto Aventuras, about two kilometres from the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort, said he was shocked to hear about the killings.

“This is extremely rare; this is very surprising to everyone,” said Mr. Devos, who has lived in dozens of countries but has now settled in Mexico and is in the process of getting citizenship. “There is violence, like everywhere, but generally it is much safer here.”

The crime has provoked so much attention, he said, because Mexico derives huge revenue from tourism, particularly from visitors to that part of the country. The industry was hurt by the hurricane season last year and didn't need any more damage, he said.

“The violence you normally see in this area are drunken fights. This is the type of story that [Mexican authorities] don't want because it destroys the money-maker of this area.”

Officials were quick to respond and the Justice Attorney of Quintana Roo told a news conference that the police were working on two possible explanations.

Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo said that the crime could have been committed by someone in the wedding party or by an employee at the hotel, local newspaper El Universal reported.

http://www.pulse24.com/News/Top_Story/2 ... 3/page.asp

Murdered In Mexico

It was supposed to be the culmination of a dream, a chance for proud parents to see their beaming daughter walk down the aisle to begin a new life as a wife.

It wound up a nightmare that saw the family lose their parents to some vicious violence.

When Domenic and Nancy Ianiero of Woodbridge flew down to Mexico for their daughter’s wedding, they never thought they wouldn’t come home.

But something terrible happened in their hotel room on Sunday – both were found stabbed to death with a kitchen knife. His body was discovered in the bathroom. Hers was in the bedroom.

It happened at the Barcelo Baya Beach Resort, about an hour’s drive from Cancun.

Relatives can’t believe the journey to such a wonderful ceremony could have led to such a savage killing.

“The family is fairly devastated,” a shaken nephew Nick D’Allesandro observes. “Nobody has words … Nobody knows what's going on ... We're appalled, shocked. We're everything.”

Those who knew the daughter can only imagine the horror she’s going through. “We worked together every day,” reveals Francesca, a co-worker at the salon where the bride-to-be is employed.

“You do become like a family, and I mean she was happy. She was excited to finally be getting married to the man she wanted to be with. And I mean this turned tragic really fast.”

There have been no arrests in the case so far, although local authorities south of the border believe they know who may have wielded the blade.

Ottawa hasn’t commented on the murders but assure they're in touch with the family and have offered their assistance to the local police.

That’s small comfort for D’Allesandro. “We want answers,” he demands. “We hope we get them.

It’s not the first time vacationers have visited the area and not returned. In early December a European couple was murdered in the Mayan Riviera at a different resort. Two suspects were charged in that crime. A third suspect is still on the loose.

http://www.cbc.ca

Canadian suspects sought in Mexican killings: reports
Last Updated Wed, 22 Feb 2006 10:55:59 EST
CBC News
Mexican police investigating the murder of a Canadian couple at a beachside resort for their daughter's wedding have told reporters they consider two Canadian women to be suspects in the case.

Real estate agent Domenico Ianiero, 59, and his wife Annunziata, 55, were from Woodbridge, Ont., just north of Toronto.

They were found dead early Monday morning, apparently stabbed to death in the bathroom of their hotel room in Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun.

Unconfirmed Mexican news sources say the two suspects are Canadian women who flew back to Canada on Monday.

The couple had travelled to Mexico on the weekend for their daughter's wedding, along with more than a dozen other family members.

Their daughter had been due to be married at the five-star all-inclusive resort on Tuesday, the day after the bodies were found.

Canadian foreign affairs officials say they have been in touch with the victims' family and have offered assistance, but have released no further information.



http://www.signonsandiego.com

Mexican authorities partially identify possible suspects in slaying of Canadian tourists


ASSOCIATED PRESS

3:38 p.m. February 22, 2006

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Mexican authorities said Wednesday they have partially identified two potential Canadian suspects in connection with the knife slayings of a Canadian couple in their five-star hotel room near this Pacific coast resort city.
Domenico Ianiero, 59, and his wife, Annunziata, 55, were found with their throats slit in their room at the Barcelo Maya Hotel, 19 kms (12 miles) south of the town Playa del Carmen on Monday.

They had arrived on Saturday and were enjoying festivities leading up to the wedding of a daughter, state Attorney General Bello Melchor Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said Wednesday that authorities had found traces of a blood in a nearby room occupied by other Canadian guests. The guests registered using only last names, however, and abandoned the hotel early Monday. They were not part of the wedding party, Melchor said.

Police were checking with the travel agent apparently used by the Canadian suspects to obtain their full identities, Melchor said. He did not say how authorities had tracked down the travel agency.


http://www.brooksbulletin.com/news/nati ... emid=49412

Mexican authorities say organized crime not behind slaying of Canadian couple


ROMINA MAURINO
Wednesday, February 22, 2006

TORONTO (CP) - Evidence gathered so far does not suggest a Canadian couple killed at a luxury resort near Cancun were the victims of organized crime, a state attorney general in Mexico said Saturday.

Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo, attorney general for Quintana Roo state, has previously said the victims, Domenico Ianiero, 59, and his wife, Annunziata, 55, of Woodbridge, Ont., were found Monday with their throats slit in what appeared to be a "professional" manner.

That led to speculation that the killing had been a professional hit, carried out while the Ianieros were in Mexico to attend the wedding of one of their twin girls, Lily.

"A lot of things get written about that, but I don't think (it related to organized crime)," Rodriguez y Carrillo said in a phone interview.

"We work based on concrete evidence, we don't speculate, we go based on what we know."

He did confirm that the suspects were three Canadian women, believed to be back in Canada, and that his office had their names and photographs.

"That is the case, yes, it is true," he said. "Based on the tests that we have completed, we are very certain (they are Canadians)."

He dismissed contradictory reports by his spokespeople, saying: "I am the state attorney, I'm in charge of the whole state."

Canadian consular officials and an RCMP liaison officer in Mexico are in touch with local authorities but as of Friday night, had not yet received a formal request for assistance from Mexican authorities.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa said Saturday they had received no new information since holding a news conference in Toronto on Thursday.

The lack of information and collaboration has raised concerns in Canada, as some experts and even police officers wonder why - with potential killers on the loose - Canadian authorities aren't more involved.

Liberal MP Dan McTeague, the former parliamentary secretary for Canadians abroad, expressed renewed frustration at the speed of the Canadian response Saturday. He said the Justice Department should have made a public, formal offer to help with the investigation.

"As far as forensics and expertise are concerned, we're missing two opportunities here, and they may very well have the unintended effect of bungling the case," he said.

"Number one, is to investigate and follow up on theories here in Canada, and number two, to make the offer of assistance in Mexico."

The state attorney said his office would work Sunday on a request for Canadian assistance and file it in the coming days, when it has finished collecting the necessary evidence and information.

"We haven't taken too long, there hasn't been any delay - this happened less than a week ago," he said.

"This isn't an 'enchilada', a (case of) fast food, like the stuff you guys eat. This takes time, it shouldn't be done in one day, or in two days. We need to properly finish the investigation."

Once a request is made, the suspects will be questioned by Canadian authorities, he said.

Rodriguez y Carrillo said the family and the bodies were still in Mexico on Saturday and that it was up to the family and the consulate to make arrangements to transport the bodies to Canada.

Cesar Munoz, editor of local newspaper Novedades de Quintana Roo, said he thought the bodies were scheduled to leave Saturday afternoon, but a Ianiero family member, reached at her home near Toronto, said the family still didn't have any news about when they would return.

The victims' son, Anthony, has travelled to Mexico to accompany the bodies.

The regional supervising coroner for Toronto West will take possession of the bodies upon their return.

The State Attorney has scheduled a news conference for Sunday afternoon in Cancun.

http://torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGT ... 9-sun.html

Hit by pros? Not likely
Ex-homicide investigator puzzled by Mexican info
By KIM BRADLEY, TORONTO SUN

If the Woodbridge couple murdered at a high-end resort in Mexico were slain by pros, the killers weren't very professional about it, says a former homicide detective turned consultant.

Mexican officials have raised many questions by releasing supposed details about the deaths of Domenico and Annunziata "Nancy" Ianiero, Mark Mendelson, of Mendelson Davis Consulting Partners in Toronto, said yesterday.

Many of the assertions made by Mexican investigators just don't add up, he said.

"There are more things that we know about the murders that make it not professional," said Mendelson, a 30-year Toronto officer who went to a wedding at the same resort -- the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort on the Mayan Riviera -- two weeks ago.

"Having their throats slashed does not mean it was a professional hit. There are a lot of spontaneous murders and crimes of passion where people have their throats cut. Most professional hits are done with guns.

'MUST BE BRAND NEW'

"If they're professional, they must be brand new at it because they haven't covered their tracks very well," he said.

Mendelson said a true pro would never travel all the way to Mexico, getting caught on several security videos at airports along the way not to mention on airline manifests, to murder a couple in a busy resort when it could be done more anonymously here.

"It's a 25-minute walk from one end of the resort to the other and there is uniformed security everywhere," he said.

He said he was never asked for identification when he checked in so "you could check in under any name you wanted."

Reports coming out of Mexico have suggested the killers stayed in a room across from the Ianieros', that they were women using the names King and Everald, and that they left a trail of blood between rooms. The blood, Mexicans have said, was wiped up but was identified by a chemical called Luminol.

Reports have also suggested the couple's blood was found in the neighbouring room, but Mendelson said the only way authorities would know that is by doing the "fastest DNA tests on the planet -- CSI: Miami fast."

"I'm not sure the facilities in Cancun are better than in Toronto," he said. "Even on a rush here it takes a couple of days. And professionals don't take the time to wipe the blood from the floor. It doesn't add up."

Mexicans have also said they are confident the killers were Canadian and left the country on Monday, the day the murders were committed. But that is also fishy, Mendelson said.

"They came out with that fairly quickly," he said.

"It seems fairly self- serving for the Mexican authorities, who have a lot to lose from this."

The only way to know for sure if the couple were targetted by hitmen would be to talk to police in Canada, Mendelson said.

But not one police agency in the GTA, including the RCMP, has confirmed it has spoken to Mexican investigators.

"Homicide is homicide, no matter what part of the world you're in. You have to know who your victims are. Otherwise how do you know it's a professional hit?" said Mendelson, who, during his 14 years with the Toronto homicide squad, travelled to England, India and Bangladesh for investigations.

"It's just as easy for Mexicans to come here or at least pick up the phone. I find it hard to believe they haven't spoken to anyone here."

He said it may be that the investigators at the heart of the case aren't talking to preserve the investigation, and the reports coming out of the country are merely speculation.

"The truth is nobody really knows who's talking to who," he suggested.




http://torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGT ... 4-sun.html

February 25, 2006

Guests: 'Nobody knew anything'
Many vacationers, some on same floor as slain couple, never questioned about killings
By LISA LISLE AND NATALIE PONA, TORONTO SUN

Many people vacationing at the high-end resort where a Canadian couple was found murdered Monday morning, including people staying on the same floor, were never questioned by authorities.

Contrary to reports from officials in Mexico of a thorough investigation, people staying at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort were allowed to leave the compound without ever speaking to police.

Maurice Davidson, who stayed at the resort from Feb. 16 until Thursday, said he passed by Domenico and Annunziata "Nancy" Ianiero's room while police were removing one body.

"We saw the yellow tape they put around their patio. We saw them bring out the body ... but their vehicles were unmarked," said the 58-year-old Burlington man. "We just sort of figured it was an elderly person (who died)."

Though he was staying near the Ianieros' room, he was never questioned by police. He only learned of the double murder on the flight home.

"It was sort of weird ... but maybe they didn't want to cause any panic," he said.

"Whether the resort kept it quiet so it didn't affect tourism business, we don't know."

Among the many remarks about the murders and the subsequent investigation made by Mexican prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo was that they had locked down the resort so they could talk to everyone before they left.

One woman, who was staying just down the hall from the slain couple, said she never suspected anything sinister had happened when she left just a couple hours after authorities believe the double murder was committed.

Having walked past the couple's door to check out of the resort, the woman, who asked not to be identified, said there were no signs of the grisly crime.

According to reports coming out of Mexico, the alleged killers stayed across the hall from the Ianieros and they left a blood trail between the two rooms, which was wiped up and identified using Luminol, a special chemical that reveals blood traces invisible to the naked eye.

She learned that someone had been murdered from friends who arrived at the airport a couple of hours later.

Friends also staying on the same floor saw police arrive but were never questioned before they caught their airport shuttle a couple of hours later. Like Davidson, they knew someone had died but had only heard rumours circulating through the hotel of a murder.

"I thought: 'There's no way they would let them out of the resort if it really happened,'" she said.

Although she was stuck at the airport for nine hours during the same time police believe the alleged suspects flew out of Mexico, no investigators came to question passengers.

"The way they dealt with it was pretty shabby," she said.

"I'm just getting the feeling that the Mexican authorities are putting a wash over it and not getting to the bottom of it," Davidson said.

Others staying at the resort and just returning to Pearson airport last night still had not heard about the murders.

"Hard to be worried when we didn't know about it," said Martyn, who asked that his last name not be used. "Nobody knew anything."

The London-area man and three friends wouldn't have known about the murders had they not called home.

There was no sign of any investigation and no guests were questioned, he said.



http://www.ctv.ca


Frustration mounts over Mexico investigation
Updated: Sat. Feb. 25 2006 8:11 AM ET

Frustration is building in Canada over the Mexican investigation into the murders of an Ontario couple at a five-star Mayan Riviera resort.

Four days after Domenico Ianiero and his wife, Annunziata, were found slain in their hotel room at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort, authorities continue to insist that two Canadians are suspects in the murders.

But police in Canada and a pair of Ontario women, who believe they've been falsely linked to the crime, are critical of the way the investigation is being handled.

The two women from Thunder Bay, Ont., who had been vacationing at the same resort when the couple was murdered, were floored when they heard Mexican authorities use similar last names to theirs, while fingering two Canadian women as suspects.

One of the women, Kimberley Kim, told CTV, "They are going after the wrong people... The real murderer is going to get away with it."

Upon their return home, they hired a lawyer, who says if Mexico has evidence against them, it's fabricated.

"It is preposterous to think that they could be involved in any kind of criminality. They have not had so much as a speeding ticket in their lives," their lawyer Lee Baig told CTV Toronto.

"It is incredible that anyone would consider them to be capable of murder," he said

The pair also went to local police, who say the Mexican investigation is like a runaway train.

Ont. detective questions investigation

"There was no proper lockdown of the crime scene, people were not stopped, people were not identified. And further, people weren't even challenged at the airport," Thunder Bay police Det.-Insp. Dan Taddeo charged, in an interview with CTV News.

Taddeo declined comment on why the two women from the northern Ontario city believed they were suspects, but said police have no reason to believe they were involved.

Taddeo told The Canadian Press he found it "peculiar" that Mexican police are so certain the crimes were committed by someone from outside the country.

"I don't know how they can make that leap so quickly and so definitively without seeking some kind of co-operative effort from a Canadian police service," he told The Canadian Press.

"It's extremely puzzling."

Taddeo also questioned why Mexican authorities did not seem interested in interviewing Canadians who were at the resort on the night of the murders.

"Somebody may have seen something, somebody may have been at a gathering, somebody may have heard something," he said.

"It's extremely peculiar that they be so positive on their angle of investigation without reaching out and getting assistance from police agencies in this country."

On Friday, a Canadian tourist who was staying at the Barcelo Maya resort told CTV News that she had not been interviewed by police.

"No one questioned any of us, and we checked out as normal. There didn't seem to be any presence of anybody in the lobby or anybody that wasn't normally there," Wendy Ferrara said.

Furthermore, she was not prevented from getting on the flight once at the airport, Ferrara said.

Conflicting accounts

Meanwhile, Mexican authorities are offering conflicting information on whether or not they are searching for a third suspect in the brutal slayings of an Ontario couple.

The Toronto Star reported Friday that Mexican prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez said Mexican authorities have the names and photos of two suspects wanted in the brutal slayings of an Ontario couple, and are now searching for a third suspect.

But Armando Marquez, also with the state attorney's office, said there had been a misunderstanding.

"No, there is nothing of the sort, that's a misunderstanding," said Marquez Friday.

"We are working on (the case) and we aren't releasing any more information so as to not interfere with the investigation -- but I can tell you, in all honesty, that there is nothing like that ... especially not people or photographs."

Rodriguez has said the slaying of the couple, who were in Mexico for their daughter's wedding, was the work of a pre-meditated, professional hit.

But Toni Veola believes the suggestion is unfair to the memory of her murdered relatives.

"I think the public is being misled about this hit thing. These people are innocent people," Veola told CTV Toronto.

"They're hardworking people and they don't deserve that kind of insinuation."

Former Toronto homicide investigator Mark Mendelson also told CTV News that he doubts the theory that the murders were a professional hit.

"You're going through so many different security systems -- Pearson, Cancun, at the hotel," Mendelson said Friday.

"You leave yourself on tape in so many different locations. That's not the mark of a professional."

Canadian authorities

RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Nathalie Deschenes said that while a number of people have come forward to the Mounties with information about the case, the Mexican police have not made an official request for assistance.

Canadian consular officials were still with the family in Mexico, but could not confirm Friday whether the family had been moved from the Barcelo Maya resort.

Meanwhile, Mexican authorities are claiming the huge amount of attention surrounding the case is hampering the investigation.

Duran told reporters Friday that the prosecutor needs to be able to focus on the probe without distraction and said too much information is being reported before its validity can be verified.

"We are asking our friends in the media here in the state that they allow us move forward, that they allow us to work, because it's a bit difficult right now," Felipe Duran, a spokesman for the state attorney's office, said in a phone interview.

"Every day information is coming out (and) we really we don't have anything more than what we (originally) released."

With a report from CTV's Austin Delaney and Kathy Tomlinson

http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Funeral operator tight-lipped about bodies
Elusive figure removed corpses of slain couple from upscale resort
TIMOTHY APPLEBY AND JOE FRIESEN

XPU-HA, MEXICO -- If there is one player who might be able to shed a little light on the macabre double slaying this week of Ontario vacationers Domenico and Annunziata Ianiero, it is the proprietor of a funeral home that sits on a dusty street on the south side of this tourist town.

But Mike Milhern, owner and operator of Funerales del Caribe, isn't talking.

A portly, 50-ish figure clad in baggy white trousers and a loose-fitting shirt, Mr. Milhern seemed apprehensive when approached.

"I have nothing to say to the press," he said in unaccented English, hastily locking the glass-plated doors of his front office, in which sat two empty coffins.

Were he to speak up, Mr. Milhern might have a great deal to share about the slayings of the Ianieros in an unsolved crime that has rocked the tranquillity of Mexico's Mayan Riviera on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Parked beside the undertaker's battered orange-and-white premises, on top of which are small apartments, sits the Funerales del Caribe hearse, a big black Chevrolet Suburban.

Next to it is the owner's Oldsmobile, a skull decal decorating its rear panel.

Within hours of the discovery of the couple's bodies in their reportedly blood-spattered luxury suite at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort early Monday, that hearse and its burly driver were spotted at the hotel, summoned to take away the corpses.

Just how much forensic examination preceded the removal of the bodies from the crime scene is unclear. But there seems small doubt that the perturbed hotel management was anxious to clean up the horrific mess as quickly as possible.

Astonishingly, one visiting tourist has spoken of a friend witnessing a maid mopping up blood on the first floor of the hotel, where the couple was killed, with no sign of police.

Another guest has said that through the open door of the couple's suite, she was able to glimpse Mrs. Ianiero's body lying on the floor of the living room in a pool of blood.

As with her 59-year-old husband, whose body was found in the bathtub, Mrs. Ianiero, 55, had had her throat slashed.

Along with 16 other relatives and friends, the couple had been visiting Mexico to celebrate the wedding of their daughter, Lily.

Rodolfo Pacheco, general manager of the now closely guarded Barcelo Maya, did not return calls yesterday seeking comment on whether the crime scene might have been hopelessly contaminated by his staff.

There were signs of a struggle, the local Novedades newspaper reported, quoting police sources -- furniture and lamps had been knocked over.

But the fact that some of Mrs. Ianiero's jewellery was left untouched has fuelled the police theory that the couple were the targets of a planned execution rather than a robbery and that the killers are two Canadians who boarded a plane home within hours of killing their victims.

Hurriedly botched or not, the homicide investigation's most remarkable detail is that, according one local newspaper, the two bodies have been cremated in preparation for their return to Canada today.

But according to a Toronto report last night, the Mexicans were still performing tests on the bodies, adding that they would be returned to a Woodbridge, Ont., funeral home today.

A person who answered the phone at Fratelli Vescio funeral home in Woodbridge said she could not confirm if or when the bodies would be arriving.

"We're not giving out any information right now," she said.

Might there have been traces of the killer's DNA under the victims' fingernails? Were the bodies meticulously examined, a process that normally takes many days? Did the attackers leave behind any footprint traces in the blood before it was mopped up?

Also evident is that the hotel was not sealed off and that most of the hundreds of hotel guests were not questioned, as police initially asserted.

"Nobody mentioned it, it was as though it hadn't happened," a guest who checked out on the morning of the slayings told CTV.

"No one questioned any of us," said a second tourist who departed at the same time.

"There was no police, at least no uniformed police."

In Thunder Bay, meanwhile, police said that two women who were at the resort at the time of the slayings contacted them this week. The women's names are similar to the names cited by Mexican police in media reports and they flew out of Mexico on a charter to Thunder Bay the day the bodies were discovered.

They are in their 30s and the mothers of small children. One is a medical student at McMaster University who will graduate this year; the other is a part-time health-care worker.

Thunder Bay police said the women, who were part of a group that had gone to Mexico for a wedding, were interviewed at a police station on Wednesday. The interviews were done separately with Mounties present.

"Nothing they said causes us to believe they were involved in any way," said Detective Inspector Dan Taddeo of Thunder Bay police.

Wendy Ferrara, who was also part of the wedding party, said she spoke to one of the women after hearing her described in news media reports.

"She was just in shock. It had only been half an hour since anyone had told her that it looks like they think it's you," she said.

Det. Insp. Taddeo said the women went to police because "they just thought it was their duty or prudence to notify police."

A lawyer representing both women described them as model citizens who do volunteer work.

"They've never even had a speeding ticket in their lives, either of them," Lee Baig said. "So this thing is like a nightmare."

Mexican police have made no effort to contact the women, who had travelled on a flight that had been set six weeks earlier, he added.

Det. Insp. Taddeo said repeated efforts to offer help to Mexican police through the RCMP and Interpol have met with no reply. As a result, his officers have nothing to go on.

"That's the frustrating part. We don't have any credible information," he said. "Normal police practice is to know what you're investigating to get some information, that way we can ask some clarifying questions, perhaps look at physical evidence that may be back in Canada."

He also expressed surprise that Mexican police didn't try to question any of the people from Thunder Bay who were staying at the hotel the night of the murders.

"No one asked them any questions. No one stopped them at the airport," he said. "It doesn't seem to me that there was any type of investigative measures taken at the time so we are quite concerned, or extremely curious, as to how the Mexican authorities have been able to narrow their focus to these Canadian women."

In Mexico, three federal agents have joined local authorities in investigating the killings, for which there is no precedent in or around Playa Del Carmen, a small sun-soaked, tourist-friendly town that normally experiences only one or two killings a year.

"That's why they want to solve this very fast, it's very bad for the image," said Eduardo Perre of the local Quintanarroense tabloid, echoing the view that foreigners, not Mexicans, were likely responsible and voicing confidence in the police.

But another Mexican journalist, requesting anonymity, was more skeptical.

"The problem with something like this is that nobody knew how to deal with it," he said. "They just wanted the whole thing to go away and they panicked."

If the Ianieros have been cremated, it was after their bodies were brought to Mr. Milhern's premises, which doubles as a morgue and is one of two funeral parlours in Playa Del Carmen.

What kind of a living the owner makes is moot. Weeks go by without a funeral, said Matilda Tapir, wiping tables in a modest open-air restaurant next door.

Other neighbours said the same.

"It's a mysterious place," said a grocery-store owner, and so it seemed.

When Mr. Milhern briefly unlocked his door to take delivery of a chicken meal, the young girl who brought the food ignored a reporter's inquiries and fled up the quiet street.

Equally puzzling is the state of the investigation. It was still unclear last night whether Mexican authorities have formally requested assistance from the RCMP.

The massive coverage is hampering the investigation, The Canadian Press was told yesterday by Felipe Duran of the State Attorney's Office in Quintana Roo, where the Barcelo Maya resort is located.

As to whether Mexican authorities are sticking to their killers-from-abroad thesis, Mr. Duran said he didn't know.

Wow!! We may need "Holmes" or "Perot" on this case.

Keep us posted, Brian!!

I have a feeling the Mexican police have either botched the investigation or are covering up evidence of the real killers. The Mexican Government would probably like this whole mess to go away since it isn't good publicity that tourists are getting murdered at vacation resorts. It doesn't make any sense that a couple of women committed the crime with no apparent motive. Most likely the suspect(s) are male from the sound of it.



http://winnipegsun.com/News/Canada/2006 ... 1-sun.html

February 26, 2006

Mexican cops muddle case?Women no killers, lawyer says
By KIM BRADLEY, SUN MEDIA

Two Thunder Bay women with "strikingly similar" names to those fingered as the killers of a couple at a Mexican resort should be see as witnesses to a botched police investigation and not suspects, their lawyer said yesterday.

"They have not even a speeding ticket in their backgrounds so to make them out as cold-blooded killers is preposterous," said Thunder Bay lawyer Lee Baig about his clients -- two church-going, volunteering mothers working in the medical field who don't want their names made public.

"It's too bizarre to believe," he said, adding the women are the furthest thing from the professional killers Mexican police are saying murdered the Woodbridge, Ont. couple.

The pair, who were staying at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort for another wedding and left the day after the murders of Domenic and Nancy Ianiero, sought advice after the Mexicans released names similar to theirs.

Both have given statements to police in an attempt to clear their names before they are accused of the crimes, said Baig, who is conducting his own investigation and is looking for "anything that may be helpful like photographs and witnesses."

BLOOD TRAIL

Baig believes the only connection the women have to the murders is a possible blood trail to their room they tracked in when they inadvertently walked through the crime scene in the hallway.

"It's theoretically possible they walked through blood in the hallway," he said, adding the women remember seeing the maid cleaning something "that was apparently blood" from the hall floor before going to the beach at 8 a.m. Monday, five hours after the bodies were found.

"It seemed strange to them, but they didn't know it was blood."

He also said the women remember seeing a hearse outside the hotel before the police arrived, but they didn't pay much attention to it because they weren't told what had happened.

"We don't know if the bodies were moved, but we suspect that if the hearse was there before the police, someone phoned to have the bodies picked up," Baig said. "It seems awful strange to me because that's not the way we do business here.

"We have information that the crime scene was not protected in any way.

"We suspect the reason the Mexicans would rather blame it on a foreigner rather than admit there is a killer in Mexico is to not screw up their tourist trade."

Mexican police have said the couple were killed sometime between midnight and 3 a.m. in their room, their throats slashed. Domenic was found in the bath and Nancy in the living area.





http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/National/20 ... 4-sun.html


February 26, 2006

Mistaken ID claimed
Lawyer bewildered pair suspects in Mexico slayings
By KIM BRADLEY, SUN MEDIA

TORONTO -- Two Thunder Bay women with "strikingly similar" names to those fingered as the killers of a Canadian couple slain in Mexico should be seen as witnesses to a botched police investigation and not suspects, their lawyer said yesterday.

"They have not even a speeding ticket in their backgrounds so to make them out as cold-blooded killers is preposterous," said Thunder Bay lawyer Lee Baig about his clients -- two church-going mothers working in the medical field who don't want their names published.

"It's too bizarre to believe," he said

The pair, who were staying at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort for another wedding and left the day after the murders of Domenic and Nancy Ianiero of Woodbridge, Ont., sought advice after Mexican authorities released names similar to theirs.

Baig believes the only link the women have to the murders is a possible blood trail to their room they tracked in when they inadvertently walked through the crime scene.

Meanwhile, evidence gathered so far does not suggest the murdered couple were the victims of organized crime, a state attorney general in Mexico said yesterday.

Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo, attorney general for Quintana Roo state, has previously said the victims were found Monday with their throats slit in what appeared to be a "professional" manner. "A lot of things get written about that, but I don't think (it related to organized crime)," he said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Slaying suspects fear Mexican jail
JOE FRIESEN

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

THUNDER BAY — As the bodies of a husband and wife killed days before their daughter's wedding were returned to Canada yesterday, two Thunder Bay mothers who fear they are suspects in the gruesome slayings were panic-stricken at the prospect of being extradited to Mexico.

The Ontario Coroner's office took possession of the bodies of Domenico and Annunziata Ianiero on arrival at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Experts will examine them over the next day or two to see whether any evidence useful to an investigation can still be gleaned.

Last night, family members gathered at a home in Woodbridge, just north of Toronto, and refused to speak to the news media.

Mr. Ianiero, 59, and his 55-year-old wife were found with their throats slit in a first-floor hotel room at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort near Playa del Carmen, where their daughter, Lily, was to have married last week.

The bodies were removed from Playa Del Carmen's Funerales Del Caribe funeral home overnight Saturday, according to a neighbour.

The neighbour noticed that the funeral home's Chevrolet Suburban hearse was still parked there at 10 p.m., but was gone by early Sunday morning. Authorities had waited for a crowd of reporters and camera crews to leave before taking the bodies away, the neighbour said.

A Canadian consular officer from the embassy in Mexico City remains on the scene in the resort community to assist the family, according to Rejean Beaulieu, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Canada in Ottawa.

There was no word on when the family members who travelled to Mexico for the wedding might return to Canada.

In Thunder Bay, meanwhile, two single mothers were back at work but frozen with fear, their lawyer Lee Baig said yesterday. The two, who stayed in a room close to the slain couple, have names that sound very similar to the ones Mexican authorities say are prime suspects in their homicide investigation. One woman is in her final year of medical school at McMaster University, the other is a health-care administrator and neither has ever been involved with police.

Last week, they voluntarily appeared at a police station and made video statements in front of Thunder Bay police and the RCMP. Neither woman had consulted a lawyer at that point, and investigating officers said they were satisfied the women had nothing to do with the killings.

But the worst-case scenario looms large. Mexican officials have suggested that they will issue a warrant for arrest once their investigation is complete. That would set wheels in motion that could lead to an extradition hearing, and possibly a return to Mexico to face trial.

"They'll end up in jail in a foreign country where they don't speak the language facing a murder trial in a politically charged atmosphere," Mr. Baig said, painting a picture of the nightmare plaguing his clients. "They're freaking out."

Thunder Bay police said they have received a request through Interpol to assist with the Mexican murder investigation. Officers will be interviewing Thunder Bay residents who were at the resort when the bodies were discovered.

In the event that Mexican police do issue extradition warrants for the women, the process would by no means be automatic. Before acting on any arrest warrants, the RCMP would have to examine the Mexicans' case and be satisfied that it has merit. Thus far, the Mounties are known to be highly skeptical.

But even if they do agree that the Mexican extradition bid is solid, the warrants could still be challenged, in what would likely be a drawn-out legal battle.

The New Democratic Party says it's time for the federal government to act in the case.

"I think they're at a stage where they're going to have to file a formal protest with the Mexican government," NDP justice critic Joe Comartin said. "That thing appears on the surface so clearly to have been bungled. The investigation techniques are very, very crude by any kind of international standards, and way below what we normally get from the Mexican police forces."

Indeed, after saying two Canadian women were responsible for the killings, Mexican officials recently said a third Canadian woman may be involved. Yesterday, a local tabloid that had already printed the name of two Thunder Bay women splashed a third name on its front page.

Mr. Baig said he has no credible information about a third suspect. He is being kept informed by Thunder Bay police, who are working with RCMP and Interpol to deal with Mexican authorities.

Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo, the state attorney for Quintana Roo -- which includes the territory where the resort is located -- was not answering his telephone yesterday. Reports said he had been summoned to Mexico City for consultations with his federal counterparts about the forensic aspects of the investigation into the killing.

Mr. Baig said his clients are upstanding citizens, who are in their thirties, have two children each and are active volunteers at church and in the community. "They're as far from cold-blooded killers as can be imagined," he said.

Neither has spoken to the news media, on the advice of Mr. Baig.

Witnesses from the hotel said the crime scene was not secured and many guests were permitted to check out of the hotel less than an hour after the bodies were discovered without speaking to police.

With reports from Jeff Sallot and Campbell Clark in Ottawa, Timothy Appleby in Playa Del Carmen and Omar El Akkad in Woodbridge, Ont.



http://www.thestar.com

Thunder Bay now focus of Mexican investigation
Police have been questioning local residents

Two women terrified they have been falsely accused, lawyer says
Feb. 28, 2006. 01:00 AM
DALE BRAZAO
IN PLAYA DEL CARMEN, MEXICO


Acting on a request from Mexican authorities, police in Thunder Bay are interviewing local residents who were staying at the Mayan Riviera all-inclusive resort when a Woodbridge couple were slain in their room last week.

"It's really (to gather) information at this point," said Chris Adams, police services executive officer, yesterday in an interview from the Northern Ontario city. Thunder Bay lawyer Lee Baig, retained by two women who fear they are being falsely linked to the Feb. 20 killings of Domenic, 59, and Nancy Ianiero, 55, said his clients are scared and "not in very good shape to talk to anybody at the moment. They're mostly concerned about their kids and their families."

Baig said he believes the Mexicans want Canadian police to identify people in a wedding photo taken at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort. "As I understand it there's a copy of a photograph from a wedding that my clients attended," Baig said.

The investigation continues to generate widespread attention, primarily because of the perception that it was botched and for its snap conclusion: that three Canadian women attending a wedding killed a Toronto-area couple who were at the resort for their daughter's wedding. Initially, Mexican officials suggested the crime was premeditated and "professional." Mexican officials allege the trio left the country within hours of the grisly homicides. The couple had their throats slashed.

During the busy winter season, tour operator Sunquest runs a weekly return charter flight between Thunder Bay and Cancun, about an hour's drive north of the resort. While Mexican authorities have not confirmed the names of their suspects, local tabloids released three names through an unsubstantiated source. Baig, while dismissing the "unreliable" media reports, said those names, Martha Thompson, Everald Arnorld and "King," are not the names of his clients.

However, he did confirm his clients, both health-care workers with children, were registered in room 4143 down the hall from the Ianieros, who had checked into room 4134 on Feb. 18.

Mexican prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez has said a trail of blood between the two rooms — and traces of blood found in 4143 — is key evidence.

Many unanswered questions remain about the tragedy, including the exact location of the couple's bodies. The Ontario Coroner's office is expected to perform autopsies this week.

And confusion continues to be the name of the game in Playa Del Carmen, the largest town on the Mayan Riveria, where reporters are attempting to establish the facts surrounding the murders.

Instead they've met with a wall of half-truths, and innuendo, leaks, denials, contradictions and clarifications.

And most of that criticism is being directed at Rodriguez, the state's attorney general, who within hours of taking over the case last Monday declared it basically solved.

"This is very strange behaviour on the part of the attorney general," said Vicente Carrera, a veteran reporter with the local Novedades de Quintana Roo who has been on the story since the beginning. "The lack of information, the secrecy, the misinformation. I'm afraid this is going to make the authorities here look bad."

By comparison, when a European couple was found murdered in nearby Tulum in December, Rodriguez and his staff were direct and forthcoming, he said.

The difference, Carrera believes, was that in that case no foreign media came to town demanding answers. Three locals have recently been charged with those murders.

"I don't think they know how to handle the media," said Fernando Moreno, a freelance television producer who works extensively with American and Canadian television crews working in Mexico. "They are not used to dealing with tough questions."

Rodriguez was unavailable yesterday. Reporters had been told that Rodriguez would be issuing arrest warrants and seeking the extradition of the three women, but a spokesperson with the local prosecutors said they knew nothing about it.

Mexican authorities said last night they would have nothing more to say to Canadian reporters, until the investigation is complete.



http://www.hamiltonspectator.com

Mac student murder suspect

Named in Cancun probe
By Deirdre Healey
The Hamilton Spectator
(Feb 28, 2006)
Mexican officials are asking Thunder Bay police to question acquaintances of two Canadian women suspected in the murder of an Ontario couple killed while vacationing in Mexico.

The suspects are believed to be Cheryl Everall, a McMaster University student, and Kimberly Kim. The two women approached Thunder Bay police on Feb. 22 to proclaim their innocence. Police say they have no plans of speaking with them again at this point.

But investigators are co- operating with Mexican police and interviewing 15 other people who attended the same wedding in Cancun, stayed in the same hotel and were also on the same charter flight as the two women.

"We will be conducting interviews and trying to ascertain as much information as possible as to what people saw and heard the night of the murder," said Chris Adams, executive officer with the Thunder Bay Police Department.

Domenico Ianiero, 59, and his wife Annunziata, 55, were found dead in their hotel room in the early hours last Monday, their throats slashed. The couple was in Cancun for their daughter's wedding.

Kim and Everall were registered as staying in a room down the hall from the murdered couple, said Lee Baig, the women's lawyer.

The women became suspects after it was reported bloody footprints formed a trail from the murder victims' hotel room to the room Kim and Everall were sharing, Baig said.

But the lawyer said he has not heard any evidence "to show my clients made the trail."

The hotel was not properly secured at the time the murder was discovered and people were walking through the crime scene, he said. Previous media reports state there was a third woman suspected in the murder, but Baig said he doesn't know of one. He said conducting interviews with the other Thunder Bay residents who attended the wedding will help prove the womens' innocence.

Critics suggest the Mexican investigation has been rushed to avoid giving the popular tourist destination a bad reputation. Baig agrees.

"There is no doubt they want to pin this on foreigners. How do you do a murder investigation without interviewing anyone? No one has even suggested any motive."

Kim and Everall, both mothers in their early 30s, could not be reached for comment yesterday. The two women flew out of Cancun the morning the bodies were discovered, which was the date they were scheduled to leave, Baig noted.

Shortly after the bodies were discovered, Quintana Roo state attorney Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carillo released the surnames of the female suspects as "King" and "Everald" and those names were reported by the media. The similarity of the two surnames alarmed Kim and Everall and pushed them to go to the Thunder Bay police.

"The two ladies were concerned they may have been implicated in a situation down in Cancun while they were on holidays," Adams said.

Everall is a third-year medical student at McMaster University and days after the slayings asked for a leave of absence, said Andrea Farquhar, director of public and government relations with McMaster.

"We granted her a leave of absence and are trying to be as helpful as we can."

Everall is months away from completing her program and had planned to do her residency in Thunder Bay.

dhealey@thespec.com




http://www.thestar.com


Cancun official under fire
Denies allegations of torture, looting
In charge of probe of slain Canadians
Feb. 28, 2006. 10:33 AM
LINDA DIEBEL
STAFF WRITER


Mexican human rights activists have been demanding the resignation since last June of the top prosecutor investigating the murder of two Canadians, accusing him of sanctioning torture and the fabrication of evidence in cases within his jurisdiction.

So far, however, Bello Melchor Rodriguez, attorney-general of Quintana Roo, has brushed off complaints against him, calling them "pure lies." He failed to act on an official directive from his own government's human rights commission to investigate "improper" actions by his officers.

He also dismissed a report in Mexico's Reforma newspaper that said looted goods from last October's Hurricane Wilma, which devastated the Yucatan Peninsula, ended up in his office and those of his staffers. He is allegedly making use of a new refrigerator, while a stove went to public relations officials and a sound system found its way to the public ministry, which houses local police.

The news article says he had apparently insisted on taking charge of the recovery of more than 500 looted items in the state's northern zone, which includes the tourist area of Cancun.

Rodriguez told reporters that the justice system didn't know what to do with the goods.

But the latest controversy swirling around the powerful lawmaker may not be so easily dismissed.

For the past week, he has been under increasing scrutiny for his handling of the investigation into the murders of Woodbridge couple, Domenic Ianiero, 59, and his wife, Nancy, 55, at a luxury hotel in the beach resort near Playa del Carmen on the Mayan Riviera.

They were found on Feb. 20 in their hotel room at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort with their throats slashed.

What should have been a serious investigation has been turned into a parody by the antics of the attorney-general. He first declared that two, and then three, Canadian women were suspects in a "professional hit" and that all had returned to Canada. While stonewalling Canadian reporters, he has been a fountain of information with the Mexican press, some of it confusing. He said, for example, that hotel employees were ruled out as possible suspects because the door hadn't been forced in the murdered couple's room.

It's clear the case is a hot one for state officials, who depend on tourists, including Canadians. At the outset of the investigation, Quintana Roo Governor Felix Gonzalez Canto assured reporters that "all the force of the state" would be used. He added that "we are well aware that these things must be dealt with properly and efficiently because they can affect the tourist image of our state."

Early last week, Rodriguez told El Diario de Yucatan that the investigation was going slowly because he didn't have translators for interviews with guests at the hotel where the couple was staying for the wedding of their daughter. He told reporters that the interviews with guests began Thursday, long after the murder and apparently after many staying at the hotel had left.

"One can't put an officer in each room," he elaborated, "not only due to personal privacy but because it would scare off tourism."

But he insisted to the newspaper: "The case is isolated and, according to investigators, it doesn't appear as if hotel employees participated in the crime."

On Tuesday evening, according to El Universal, Rodriguez and other senior state officials, including the tourism minister, met with 10 consuls, including officials from Canada, the U.S., Germany, Switzerland and Italy, behind closed doors at the Cancun Convention Centre. The purpose apparently was to brief them on the Ianiero murders and "to express his concern that a growing wave of insecurity is sweeping the entire region."

Daniel Lavois, Canadian consul in Cancun, declined to accept a phone call from the Star yesterday, instead referring all calls to the Foreign Affairs press office in Ottawa. A call there was not returned.

Rodriguez also led the investigation into the murder last December of a Spanish/Italian couple near the Mayan ruins at Tulum at the southern tip of the Yucatan.

Last Saturday, on the eve of the Canadian murders, he announced that two suspects had been charged, with a third identified.

However, that case, too, has anomalies. There is confusion, for example, on the state of the woman's body.

On one hand, police said she had not resisted rape and therefore did not bear particularly brutal wounds; on the other, they said that both victims had been killed with machetes.

The accusations against Rodriquez of allowing torture are significant because Mexico is infamous for allowing charges to be laid after suspects have been tortured. Years of human rights reports have condemned judges for accepting such "evidence" and putting confessions in doubt.

Last June, Rodriguez denied accusations by human rights activists from Mexico and other Latin American countries that state police under his command beat and kicked scores of demonstrators in custody in Cancun. Despite photographic evidence from physicians, Rodriguez characterized the complaints against his department as "pure lies" and refused to step down.




http://money.canoe.ca/News/Sectors/Medi ... 23-cp.html


Tue, February 28, 2006

Backlash against travel to Mexico grows in wake of controversial murder probe

By TARA BRAUTIGAM


TORONTO (CP) - Newspaper editorials slammed Mexican authorities and urged Canadian travellers to consider avoiding the country Tuesday amid a bizarre murder probe on the Yucatan Peninsula that's prompting allegations of coverup and shoddy police work.

Domenico Ianiero, 59, and wife Annunziata, 55, of the Toronto suburb of Woodbridge, Ont., were found dead in their hotel room in a resort near Cancun last week, their throats slashed.

It took only 24 hours for the authorities to declare that the killing was the work of a professional and that their key suspects were Canadian and had already fled Mexico, prompting charges the whole affair was being swept under the carpet.

In its Tuesday edition, the National Post encouraged Canadians to think about finding another place to spend their hard-earned tourism dollars.

"This case proves what many have long known: Mexico's law enforcement and justice system are in dire need of reform," the Post editorial read.

"Until that happens, Canadians planning their next vacation in Mexico might have reason to look elsewhere."

Mexico is among Canada's most popular tourism destinations, the Globe and Mail said Tuesday in an editorial that urged the federal government to start flexing its diplomatic muscles and its Mexican counterpart to also take action.

"It is not just the killings that are marring its name," the newspaper wrote. "It is the botched investigation - and the hauntingly apparent coverup."

On Monday, Toronto radio talk show host Bill Carroll, in an editorial on Global TV's nightly newscast, urged spring break travellers to avoid the country altogether.

So far, only a "handful" of Canadian travellers destined for Mexico have called with concerns about Mexico since the controversy erupted, said Richard Vanderlubbe, president of online travel agency tripcentral.ca.

"If the story continues . . . and we find out that it's related in some way to the hotel's operations or negligence or what have you, then obviously it could have some lasting effect," said Vanderlubbe, whose company handles hundreds of trips to the country per month this time of year.

Right now, however, travellers simply don't have enough information to make an informed decision about whether to change their plans, he added.

"If (the investigation) is bungled in terms of a public relations exercise, that's a self-inflicted wound, but I think the event itself we can keep in perspective."

From the start, critics have wondered aloud if Mexican authorities rushed their investigation into the killings for fear of hurting their multimillion-dollar tourist industry, accusing police of failing to properly preserve the murder scene and canvass possible witnesses.

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay is set to meet with Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista during his visit to Ottawa this week.

The pair are expected to discuss a range of bilateral issues on Friday, but it is not yet known whether the murders will be on the agenda.

Cheryl Everall and Kimberley Kim, the two Thunder Bay, Ont., women identified as suspects by the Mexican authorities, denounced the allegations against them at a news conference as ridiculous.

The pair stayed at the same seaside luxury resort as the victims and were allowed to board their scheduled flights back home the day after the bodies were discovered, despite the apparent concerns of police.

Other guests at the hotel, many of them Canadian, were never interviewed.

"If Canadians do not trust Mexico, vote with your pocketbook," read one posting on www.topix.net, a website that hosts discussion forums about various topics, including travel destinations.

"I suggest travel to Cuba, it is safe for tourists."

Next to the United States and the United Kingdom, Mexico is the top destination for tourists from Canada. Canadians spent $791 million in the country in 2004, according to the most recent figures available from Statistics Canada.

Tourism officials and Mexican authorities have continued to insist the incident is isolated and does not pose a threat to prospective tourists.

http://www.thestar.com

EDITORIAL: Mexico's chaotic probe into murder
Mar. 1, 2006. 08:58 AM


More than a week after Domenic and Nancy Ianiero were discovered with their throats slashed at a five-star resort on Mexico's Mayan Riveria, their murders remain as mysterious as they are grisly.

And the seemingly chaotic Mexican police investigation into the deaths of the Canadian couple from Woodbridge, who were at the resort for their daughter's wedding, inspires scant confidence.

Yesterday a Toronto MP, Jim Karygiannis, urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to pick up a phone and let Mexican President Vicente Fox know that Canadians are appalled by these murders, and are determined that the police carry out a proper investigation, or be held to account.

Acting on a request by Mexican authorities, Interpol has now asked for help from Canadian police in Thunder Bay. They are planning to interview tourists who were at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort south of Cancun where the Ianieros were murdered.

But Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's comment that "almost by the hour, the story changes," is not reassuring. This case, he rightly says, is "taking on bizarre proportions."

The grieving Ianiero family deserves better. And Canadian tourists in Mexico need reassuring that the authorities take their safety seriously. That is far from evident.

Certainly, until Canadian officials know a lot more about this case, Ottawa must fend off any Mexican requests for extradition of suspects. The Mexican police say three female Canadians were involved. Two young mothers from Thunder Bay who were at the resort fear they may be suspects and have professed their innocence.

Given the seemingly shoddy nature of the investigation, it's unclear what evidence, if any, the police have to link any Canadian to this crime.

At first, lead Mexican investigator Bello Melchor Rodriguez was swift to discount the likelihood that a Mexican might have been the perpetrator, a convenient conclusion for a region so dependent on foreign visitors.

He said two Canadian suspects were involved and had fled home. He hinted at a professional "hit." Then the list of Canadian suspects grew to three. Then run-of-the-mill robbery became the motive.

Yet the police investigation itself was suspect. They claimed to have sealed off the resort and to have questioned every guest and all staff, but tourists left the hotel without ever talking to police.

Troubling questions have also been raised about the forensic side of the investigation. There's uncertainty about whether the crime scene was secured. Whether a trail of blood from the Ianieros's room to another was evidence of crime, or might simply have been spread there by tourists or staff. And whether evidence on the Ianieros's bodies was contaminated by Mexican hotel staff, police or coroners. While the Ianieros's remains are now back home, it's uncertain what an autopsy might reveal.

President Fox's office should see this for the international debacle it is: murder in a high-priced resort, a botched police investigation and wild fingerpointing at foreign suspects. It doesn't look like sunny paradise.

http://canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art ... N/34077022

Thursday, March 2, 2006
Harper to raise Mexico deaths with minister amid threat of diplomatic rift

SUE BAILEY

OTTAWA (CP) - Stephen Harper says he'll do whatever it takes to help solve the murder of a Canadian couple, including raising the case with Mexico's foreign affairs secretary.

The prime minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay are to meet Friday with Luis Ernesto Derbez. It was reported previously that the meeting would take place Thursday.

What was supposed to be a get-to-know-you session will now unfold under the pall of two brutal deaths and growing doubts about their investigation.

Harper stressed Wednesday that the case is in the early stages and that Mexican authorities have co-operated with the RCMP.

Still, he is under increasing pressure to seek answers. The crime shows every sign of becoming the Conservatives' first major diplomatic challenge.

Harper said he would not shy away from broaching the delicate subject with Derbez when he arrives in Ottawa.

"In terms of any broader concerns or discussions . . . if there's anything necessary to raise there, obviously we'll be raising it.

"This is a terrible tragedy," Harper said, after offering condolences to the victims' families. "And I hope everyone will handle it with sufficient discretion and with information - rather than speculation."

Critics have dismissed the effort by local Mexican police as inept at best, a coverup at worst.

Caught in a tangled web are two Canadian women who were staying across from the luxury resort room where Domenico and Annunziata Ianiero of Woodbridge, Ont., were found dead last week, their throats slashed.

The suspects say they are innocent.

Harper said Wednesday he has heard of no pending extradition request by Mexican officials.

The women, both mothers and health-care workers from Thunder Bay, Ont., went public Tuesday to deny any involvement in the killings.

Opposition critics have said Harper and the Conservatives have done little to ensure the case was properly handled. A raft of confusing, contradictory statements from Mexican authorities has fuelled angry suspicion that they're trying as hard to protect tourism as they are to solve the murders.

But Harper says the RCMP have been in contact with Mexican police since the couple was found. The relationship has been "co-operative," he said.

He also urged his political foes "to resist making headlines with this."

Mauricio Guerrero, a spokesman for the Embassy of Mexico in Ottawa, described the murders as "an isolated event."

Canadians have no reason to fear travelling to what he called "one of the best beaches in the world."

"It's absolutely safe," he said of the Mayan Riviera and Cancun - two of the most popular destinations for Canadians.

An official at Foreign Affairs said the department has not advised against visits to Mexico since news broke of the murders.




http://www.cbc.ca

RCMP trust Mexican handling of murder investigation
Last Updated Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:41:38 EST
CBC News
The RCMP has "full confidence" in the Mexican police investigation into the deaths of two Canadians, Assistant Commissioner Raf Souccar said Thursday.

He used the phrase repeatedly in a media briefing when reporters cited apparent problems with the investigation into the Feb. 20 killing of Dominic Ianiero and his wife Nancy at a resort in Cancun.

The couple, from Woodbridge near Toronto, had their throats slashed in their hotel room while they were in Mexico for a family wedding.

There have been reports that maids were cleaning the crime scene and the police were slow to arrive, but Souccar said people shouldn't believe everything they see or read.

"We have full confidence in the Mexican police," he repeated.

"I've got no reason to be concerned about the way the investigation is unfolding."

And "crime scenes are never uncontaminated."

The RCMP and other Canadian police are talking to Canadian tourists who were at the resort.

The RCMP have a permanent liaison officer in Mexico who is passing on information, but do not have investigators on the ground. That will only change if the Mexicans ask for help.

"This is a Mexican investigation in Mexico," Souccar said.

He would not talk about detailed evidence, unlike Mexican officials who are pushing the idea that two Canadian women were involved.

They have made it clear they suspect two Thunder Bay women, Cheryl Everall, a medical student, and Kimberley Kim, a psychology student and part-time hospice worker. The women have denied any involvement in the crime.

On Thursday, Mexican official Bello Melchor Rodriguez said the method of the murder indicated the killers had medical knowledge.

Mexican authorities have also said traces of the victim's blood were found in the room where Everall and Kim were staying.

Mexican police only asked for Canadian help on Monday. After receiving the request, Thunder Bay police began interviewing residents because about 50 people from the city were at the resort when the killings were committed.

Everall and Kim hired a lawyer and talked to police last week when it became clear the Mexicans believed they were the main suspects.

All employees at the luxury resort near Cancun have been cleared, Manuel Sarmiento Silva, deputy attorney general for Quintana Roo state, told a news conference Wednesday.

Silva's comments came a day after Kim and Everall held a news conference in Thunder Bay to profess their innocence, and describe how shocked and worried they've been since hearing their names are among those on a suspect list.

On Wednesday, Ianiero's son read a statement to the media that emphasized the family's devastation over the murders. They also pleaded for help from the Canadian government and law enforcement officials to help solve the case.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay are set to meet with Mexico's foreign affairs minister on Friday. The Mexican politician's visit to Ottawa was scheduled before the murders.


http://www.ctv.ca

Cdns still prime suspects, Mexican official says
Updated Thu. Mar. 2 2006 10:13 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The Mexican official in charge of the investigation into the brutal slayings of an Ontario couple says the principal evidence linking the two Canadian women to the murders is a trail of blood.

"A trail of blood led from the crime scene to the suspects' room," said Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo, attorney general for the state of Quintana Roo, where the murders of Domenico and Annunziata Ianiero took place.

"There are traces of blood on the key slot, the remote control, the refrigerator, the bathroom taps," he told CTV's Denelle Balfour in Spanish.

The attorney general conceded it's not yet clear who the bloody fingerprints belong to, and tests have yet to reveal if it's the same blood from the crime scene.

Still, he disagreed with witness reports that the blood was either tracked or cleaned up by hotel staff.

Authorities originally characterized the killings as the work of a professional -- fuelling speculation about a possible link to organized crime.

While Rodriguez later recanted that theory, he backtracked his statements in his interview with CTV News and repeated the initial allegations.

"The evidence is clear. The Canadian couple was killed by professionals with experience in these kinds of jobs. It was not done by an amateur," he said.

Rodriguez alleged the killers tried to clean the blood in the hall and in their room, but that traces were later revealed in forensic tests.

While he has stuck to his claims that two Thunder Bay women, Cheryl Everall and Kimberly Kim are suspects, he is not currently seeking their extradition.

"Not at this moment," he said. "They are only suspects. We don't know for sure if they committed the crime."

The investigation has faced intense scrutiny from critics who fear authorities botched the probe in their hasty efforts to protect the country's lucrative tourism industry.

But despite reports to the contrary, Rodriguez rejected witness accounts claiming the crime scene had been compromised and insisted the building was sealed, and that staff and guests were questioned.

"We don't have anything to hide. The crime scene is secure. We invite any of the authorities in Canada to review our work," he said.

While Mexican authorities believe the blood has been spread by the suspects, a senior Canadian official close to the investigation has told CTV News the blood was not spread by the women, but by a hotel maid.

The source said the maid likely transferred blood on a cleaning rag from the hallway to Everall and Kim's recently vacated room, information that was bolstered by a Canadian tourist who just returned from the resort.

"They cleaned the room, then they re-rented the room. And then they decided to look at that room ... after they'd rented it, and moved the people from that room, like at midnight. They woke them up, got them out of bed, and decided to search the room then," Brady Scavarelli told CTV.

RCMP stands by controversial probe

Despite allegations that the investigation has been botched, the RCMP's top brass is standing by the controversial probe.

"We have full confidence in the Mexican police and in their ability to carry out this investigation in the proper fashion. To date, there has been full co-operation," Assistant Commissioner of Federal and International Operations Raf Souccar said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.

Souccar told reporters the RCMP liaison officer stationed in Mexico was informed of the deaths of Domenico and Annunziata Ianiero as soon as their bodies were informed. In turn, the liaison officer contacted the Mounties in Canada.

"We, in partnership with Interpol Ottawa and other law enforcement agencies have been in contact with the Mexican authorities, and we have offered them our full support," Souccar said.

He sought to assure the Ianiero family and all Canadians that the RCMP will continue to do everything in their power to see that the investigation was brought to a professional conclusion.

But he emphasized that the murders took place outside the jurisdiction of the Mounties.

"It's important to remember that this is a Mexican investigation, as with almost any investigation into crimes outside of Canada, international law limits the extent to which we can participate," he said.

Souccar downplayed suggestions that the crime scene has been tampered with, and that the investigation has been botched.

"They've collected whatever evidence needs to be collected. As I said, I've got full confidence in their ability to uncover what needs to be uncovered and to ask for what needs to be asked for," he said.

Meanwhile, police in Thunder Bay, Ont. say they've interviewed about 20 local residents who were at the same Mexican resort as the Ianieros.

The investigation in the northwestern Ontario city was launched after local authorities received a request from Mexican police through Interpol earlier this week.

"We're still working with a list of approximately 50 and we have just shy of 20 that we've interviewed so far," police spokesman Chris Adams told The Canadian Press.

Neither Souccar nor Adams would comment on the status of Everall and Kim.

"At this point we don't exclude anybody, we don't include anybody," Souccar said, noting that the RCMP had not received any extradition requests.

"All individuals we have reason to speak to, we will speak to."

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay is scheduled to meet Friday in Ottawa with his Mexican counterpart Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista.



http://www.yorkregion.com/yr/yr4/YR_New ... 2963c.html

Mexico not worthy of one cent of our tourism dollars

Mar 2, 2006
Debora Kelly
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I can't begin to imagine the sorrow and shock felt by the family of Dominic and Nancy Ianiero.
Not only are they grieving the senseless and brutal murder of the Woodbridge couple on the eve of their daughter's wedding at a Mayan Riveria resort last week, but it appears the opportunity for justice they so rightly seek diminishes with each day that passes.

They have been at the mercy of a ludicrously and deliberately incompetent Mexican justice system that appears more concerned about protecting the country's tourism market than apprehending the perpetrators of this horrendous crime.

Are we really to believe a team of professional hit women -- well, maybe it was women -- from Canada roused the Ianieros from their bed in the early morning, slit their throats and, leaving a trail of blood behind them, then collected their bags from their nearby rooms before heading to the airport to catch their charter flight home later that afternoon?

It's a preposterous story.

Yet this is what Mexican authorities announced shortly after the murder was discovered, without presenting a shred of evidence.

Clearly, because the Ianieros are of Italian descent, the officials thought they could get away with suggesting organized crime was involved. It was only one further indignity to this hard-working, family-focused couple whose lives had been so abruptly ended.

While Mexican investigators repeatedly changed their story since then, they continue to point fingers at Canadian suspects, without appearing to involve Canadian police.

Which meant the Ianiero family, rather than being able to grieve their devastating loss in privacy, was forced not only to stand in the glare of a relentless media speculation, but to make a public plea for the justice Canadians usually take for granted.

"We strongly urge the Canadian government to continue their involvement and become even more informed of the details," son Anthony Ianiero stated at a news conference yesterday. "Justice must be done and the road to justice lies in answering the many questions that have been raised. Therefore, we ask that Canadian law enforcement officials work closely with their Mexican counterparts to find those answers."

Surprisingly, York Simcoe MP Peter Van Loan, parliamentary secretary to Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter MacKay, told the York Region Newspaper Group yesterday the RCMP has been involved in the case after the "first few hours", contrary to reports in the days following the murder.

"Now that they are involved, we can take comfort the investigation will conform to Canadian standards and Canadian interests are being sought," Mr. Van Loan said.

This case becomes even more disturbing on learning Canadian authorities have been involved. The bungling of the case continues to be made public -- the so-called suspects, mothers in Thunder Bay, held a media conference to vehemently declare their innocence.

It's a travesty to suggest information about RCMP involvement can't be made public due to the "ongoing investigation". Our justice officials have to come clean, most certainly to the Ianiero family.

In the meantime, we should keep in mind Mexico is a country plagued by rampant crime and violence and its justice system is corrupt and incompetent.

The U.S. Department of State warns of extortion, kidnapping, fraud, robbery, rape, assault and drug-related violence. "Low apprehension and conviction rates of criminals contribute to the high crime rate," its website states. "In some instances, Americans have become victims of harassment, mistreatment and extortion by Mexican law enforcement and other officials."

York Region residents and officials should not only loudly join in the cry for justice for the Ianieros, but should also turn their backs on a country not worthy of a single cent of our tourism dollars.