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B OPINION DETECTIVE'S PERSEVERANCE UNCOVERS THE TRUTH, WRITES STEPHEN METELSKY STEPHEN METELSKY Column Bone blew the investiga- open,” said Det. Chris anes who steadfastly be- lieved Angie Pauls' death was not an accident on Nov. 23, 2003, when she fell from Mount Nemo. In the weeks since the in- cident, it was initially be- Hevedior to be “an accident," ‘had convinced the homie unit toes Pauls’ an play a at the! hands ¢ of her agic day. it evidence involved Pauls' face being covered up with a sweatshirt after she had fallen 70 feetnear a path featuring signs warning hikers of the dangerous ter- just don't cover someone's face with a sweat- HALTON CRIME, CONFIDENTIAL, shirt. They're already dead," said Clarke. "He (Poli- mac) covered her (Pauls) face. You only cover some- one's face if they are dead, and a Polimas c) said she was oe his was the detective's evidence reasonable and wrobable grounds to prove Polimac was responsible for his wife's death. “Tt was al homicide i inves- igation recalled Clarke. The & case was ting bigger and bigger.” It became a homicide in- vestigation due to the leg- work of the detective. He had finally convinced all the ayers who doubted his “gut feeling" that this was a homicide from Day 1. The homicide team tran- sitioned to the major case management model with in- vestigators being seconded from the major incident re- sponse team (MIRT). Clarke recalled that diffi- cult first meeting — the cor- oner's conference. It was to discuss the exhumation of auls' body for a forensic ex- get- mn, the same exam. Gate b had adamantly sug- gested the day after Pauls' tion, will we be able to tell if Angie Pauls was able to speak or not?" asked Clarke, in reference to establishing whether Pauls would have had the ability to speak after a horrendous fall and sus- taining the life-threatening injuries she succumbed to. "No," was the response Clarke received during the coroner's conference. "What's the point then?" Clarke responded. The de- tective was now against ex- uming Pauls' body if it could not unequivocally es- tablish that key piece of physical evidence. Clarke also had the victim's family n his mind. “If we exhume her, we will be upsetting the family and not getting any evi- dence out of it," Clarke said during the conference. The detective's aint via was quashed and Pauls' was exhumed. The nenase later found to be a murder. home of Polimac to install hidden wires. A team of in- vestigators from Niagara police were enlisted to do that covert work. "We had 19 wires up and lines everywhere," Clarke remembered. Police had wired up the inside of Polimac's home captured some evidence when the surveil- lance team discreetly fol- lowed Polimac to the ceme- tery during the investiga- tion. post-mortem determined the cause of death was due to a severed spine. Meanwhile, the file morphed into a Part 6 wire investigat on s pertain to Lsteaing devices installed after authorization ceived from a judge, giv ing police legal authority to sur- reptitiously break into the DOWNTOWN GEORGETOWN 83 Mill St | 905 873 1867 Day, Evening and Saturday Hours | Same day appointments for urgent eye care. Please phone. (oq Dr. Ben Giddens We are open but due to the current virus situation we have to limit the number of people and keep everyone safe! Dr. Andrea Kozma GIDDENS OPTOMETRY FAMILY EYE CARE SERVICES METRO PLAZA 371 Mountainview Rd S |905 873 1861 "He went swore at her and called hera wh--e," Clarke said of the wiretay idence. It wasn't standalone evi- dence to convict someone for murder. It was circum- stantial but shed light on Po- limac's moral character. Po- limac had also want wife cremated ‘camonielely after her death — another potential red flag. What was initially thought to be an accident at Mount Nemo. was Diane Burgess. photo Polimac began to “act prompted investigators to reference Polimac as "heat conscious" — a term police who drives erratically to evade being followed. Polimac had also resort- ed to making all his phone calls from one phone booth. Police had that wired up for ote ‘a year into the inves- tigation, there was one last wire to install as investiga- tors closed in, and it directly involved Chris Clarke. Once the homicide team amassed enough evidence to arrest Polimac, they chose the de- tective to make the arrest. Clarke's bulldogged dedica- tion to the file had paid off — and this was his eng That last wire to be attached to Clarke and used to record Polimac's ar- rest. “They were going to wire Your member of provincial parliai TED ARNOTT, MPP Wellington-Halton Hills YAW AT ac=xel-]aaveladgale) oMexelat] Phone: 1-800-265-2366 ¢ 519-7: MYSTERY AT MOUNT NEMO - WIRED FOR SOUND (PART 2) fore nervous, "said 5 z ble for parole until 2031. ears aft e Clarke was at Joseph Brant Hospital after the birth of ild. The doctor on rounds that day was the vince that Pauls' death wasa homicide. The doctor shook the detective's hand. Clarke. I should told the detective. prompted the province coroner's office to update their sudden death policies These cases must ‘include considerations for forensic post-mortem examinations. is still serving his sentence at an undisclosed jail in Canada. Stephen Metelsky is an author, professor, and re- tired HRPS detective. Twit- ter @StephenMetelsky. Have a story idea? Reach him at HaltonCrimeConfi- ontial@gmail.com.