The Guardians (34 page)

    
Mr.
Schantz was not in Grimshaw at the time of the murder, and police have stressed
that neither he nor his wife is a suspect in their investigations. As to
alternative leads, authorities admit they are currently without clear
directions.

    
Miss
Worth's body was discovered by Mrs. Schantz in an upstairs bedroom early on the
morning of November 12. While police are not publicly disclosing the details of
the crime, the Beacon has learned that it was a brutal attack, the weapon being
a wood plank bearing a nail or screw at its end. This weapon was used in fatally
striking Miss Worth several times.

    
A
memorial service for Elizabeth Worth is to be held at McCutcheon's Funeral Home
on Thursday, November 17, 2 P.M. Any gifts of remembrance are asked to be made
to the Perth County Family Services, which administers the guardianship of
orphans such as Miss Worth
.

    Paul
Schantz. The old man we'd visited in the Cedarfield Seniors Home. The one who'd
warned me about the dead coming back.

    Next,
an inky carbon copy.

    
CORONER'S REPORT-SUMMARY STATEMENT

    
Perth
County Coroner's Office

    
Dr.
Philip Underhill, B.Sc., M.D.

    
Deceased:
Elizabeth Worth

    
Age:
16

    
Report
Release Date: Friday, November 18, 1949

    
Cause
of Death
: Brain hemorrhage from head trauma. Circumstances involved
repeated strikes to the skull (numbering 8 to 12) by a wood board. A three-inch
screw affixed to the board creating an open fracture in the cranium, likely in
initial strike. Subsequent blows using same instrument cause of fatal cerebral
injury.

    
Autopsy
(Summary Remarks)
: Homicide (see above). Upon examination, deceased showed
indications of recent sexual battery and physical struggle (likely the result
of resistance to attack). Nature of injuries consistent with non-consensual
intercourse.

    
A
short piece in
The Globe and Mail.

    "Not
Our Man," Police Say

    Announcement
Clears Foster Father of Suspicion in Case

    of
Grimshaw Girl's Rape and Murder

    By
David Huggins

    Grimshaw—At
first, the murder of a young girl in this agricultural community was received
by local residents with understandable shock. However, since parts of a
coroner's report were released to the public showing Elizabeth Worth, 16, was
sexually assaulted a short period prior to her death, this small, southwestern
Ontario town has been gripped by rampant speculation as well as grief and fear.

    Though
community members have provided a "handful" of tips, police still
have no substantive evidence or suspects in the case.

    For
some, suspicion was primarily directed at the girl's foster parents, and
particularly her male guardian, Paul Schantz, 47. Yesterday, however, police
officially cleared Mr. Schantz from any foul play when they announced that he
was out of province visiting an ill family member over the time of the girl's
rape and murder.

    "We
are aware that cases of this kind bring hardship upon those living close to the
events," Grimshaw Police Superintendent Robert James stated at a news
conference. "One form of such hardship is the way people can muse about
possible guilty parties. I am here today to tell you that Mr. Paul Schantz is
not under investigation in this case."

    Superintendent
James's announcement was made in apparent response to harassing phone calls and
anonymous letters the Schantzes have received following the release of the
coroner's report.

    The
investigation has now turned to "other avenues," police said in
response to questions from this newspaper.

    Another
newspaper clipping, from the Province-Wide News section of
The Toronto
Telegram.

    Grimshaw—A
search is under way for Roy DeLisle, a 16-year-old foster child who went
missing from his home in this sleepy community 150 miles west of Toronto. Mr.
DeLisle's disappearance has left many residents of Grimshaw puzzled after the
murder just last week of Elizabeth Worth, another child under the guardianship
of Paul and May Schantz, the owners of the home where Worth and DeLisle lived.

    While
police are officially treating Mr. DeLisle's file as a missing persons case,
two sources within the force told the
Telegram
that they are
"exploring connections" between the young man's absence and the
coroner's findings that Miss Worth was sexually assaulted shortly before her
death.

    "I
would say that Roy DeLisle could rightly be considered a suspect at this point,
yes," the police source said. "We'd certainly like to talk to
him."

    Though
just a teenager, Mr. DeLisle has already compiled a disturbing criminal record
and history of violence. The
Telegram
has obtained court documents
showing that, during three of his previous foster home stints, Mr. DeLisle was
twice charged with assault (both times the complainants being women), along
with one charge of public indecency.

    Local
police as well as the O.P.P. are involved in the search, but their efforts have
so far been frustrated by little information on the boy, whose parents died
shortly after his birth, and who otherwise has no known family Further, no
photographs of Mr. DeLisle have yet been made available to investigators.
"It's like he was never here," commented one provincial police
detective.

    Finally,
another story in
The Grimshaw Beacon
, this one published on March 12,
1950, four months after Elizabeth Worth's death.

By Louis Weir

Beacon Staff Reporter

    Grimshaw
Police and Ontario Provincial Police conducting a coordinated search for a
missing Grimshaw boy who is considered the prime suspect in the murder of his
former foster sister, Elizabeth Worth, have announced they are scaling back the
resources being applied to their search. Roy DeLisle, who would have recently
turned 17, has been missing since Friday, November 18, of last year, when he
apparently left home for school in the morning but never arrived.

    "We've
done everything we can for now," said Donald Poole, Chief of Grimshaw
Police and overseer of the search efforts. "Roy is out there somewhere,
and we are hopeful that a member of the public will alert us to his
whereabouts. We will find him, but it likely won't be in Grimshaw or the Perth
County area or Ontario. Sometimes runaways just don't come back to where they
ran from."

    Paul
Schantz, the foster parent who was acting as guardian of Mr. DeLisle for the
four months prior to his disappearance, has previously alluded to the boy's
"restless ways," and in an interview with the
Beacon
,
speculated that Roy may have had a "wandering spirit."

    When
asked to comment on Mr. DeLisle's previously disclosed criminal history and
attacks on young women, as well as his possible role in Miss Worth's death, Mr.
Schantz would say only that such considerations are a matter for the police.

    Mr.
Schantz is still recovering from the tragic loss of Miss Worth late last year.
Elizabeth Worth, 16 at the time of her death, was found murdered in the
Schantzes' Caledonia Street home on November 12. Only two days after her
memorial service, Mr. DeLisle was reported missing.

    Though
Chief Poole would not be drawn into open conjecture at his press conference,
many have noted a connection between evidence that Miss Worth was raped before
her death and Mr. DeLisle's missing status, not to mention the nature of his
prior charges.

    I
finish reading lying on the floor. The first tendrils of dusty sunlight making
their way toward me over the hardwood.

    
His
name is Roy
.

    The
boy was a real person once. A teenager the same age we were when we first
entered the house to find Heather Langham in the cellar.

    
He
killed that girl
.

    Of
course it's possible that someone other than Roy DeLisle, her foster brother,
assaulted and then murdered Elizabeth Worth. It could have been another kid at
school, a teacher, a stranger. But it wasn't. It was Roy's "restless
ways" that invited him to the party, the same way he invited each of us
decades later. He had done bad things in the homes he was dropped into before
the Schantzes', and he had done another, even worse thing to Elizabeth Worth.
And then he was gone.

    But
wherever Roy ran to, he's back in the Thurman house now. That's why Ben
watched. Made sure the doors stayed closed. Prevented others from going in. Ben
had made a prison for himself in this room, but he'd done it to keep the
Thurman house a prison for Roy DeLisle.

    I'm
folding the clippings to slip them back inside the journal when something else
falls out from its pages. A plain envelope.

    I
know what's inside before I open it. Not from the feel of its shape through the
paper, not its surprising weight. I just
know.

    And
then it's there, a coil of delicate chain and gold heart in the palm of my
hand. Heather's locket. The one she was wearing when we buried her.

    As
though at the sound of someone coming up the stairs, I hastily tie the
clippings with the same ribbon and, not knowing where else to put it, tuck the
package back into the air vent under the bed. But not the locket. I slip its
chain into my wallet. Feel the gold heart press against my hip.

    When
I get to my feet again the dawn has finally arrived, though the streets remain
quiet. I take a seat at Ben's window and try not to think. About the clippings,
about the locket. Discoveries that explain everything. Or nothing.

    It's
this effort to sit and simply breathe that at first prevents me from noticing
the man standing on the sidewalk, directly in front of the Thurman house.

    He
has been there for some time, or at least as long as it has taken me to focus
on the view below. His back to me. Canvas sneakers and lumberjack shirt and a
John Deere ball cap turned backwards on his head.

    I
recognize Gary Pullinger, Tracey Flanagan's boyfriend, a split second before he
turns. His eyes searching the houses on the McAuliffes' side of the street,
alerted to a sound, or perhaps by the sense that he was being watched. He
appears lost. It's as though he had thought he was in another, safer town all
his life and only now recognized the depths of his error.

    And
then he spots me. I can read the swift consideration of options passing through
his mind. In the end he simply starts up the slope toward the hospital at an
intentionally leisurely pace, an attempt to reinforce the illusion that he
didn't stop outside the house at all, but merely paused to inhale a breath of
the sun- sweetened air before continuing on his way.

    But
he
had
been watching the house. Looking into its windows. Searching for
something he both wanted and did not want to see.