HUNTER EXCLUSIVE: Slaying of Toronto Brinks guard in 1980 linked to Florida murder?
· Toronto Sun
If the killer isn’t already planted six-feet under himself, he may be sitting in his La-Z-Boy staring blankly at the door.
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Watching. Waiting. Sweating.
It’s been nearly 46 years but with each quantum leap in forensic science, the man who murdered part-time Brinks guard Larry Roberts on April 24, 1980, inches closer to that knock on the door from cops. And resolution.
The case went cold quick, although members of Montreal’s notorious West End Gang were widely suspected of being the culprits from the start.
Evidence being retested with new tools
Now, the Toronto Sun has learned, the mountain of forensic evidence left behind that bloody day is being retested for DNA and genetic genealogy. The new science has helped close hundreds of cases across North America. Cops hope it will be the magic bullet in the Roberts case.
Cold case Det. Andrew Doyle told the Sun the unit is working with cops in St. Petersburg, Fla, where a similarly chilling robbery and murder of a Brinks guard occurred two years after Roberts was slain. Joseph Warner, age 44 and a father of five, was shot and killed during a heist at a St. Petersburg mall on Jan. 23, 1982.
Florida detectives concluded that all roads were leading to Montreal.
“We are diligently investigating this murder, we are using some new techniques to identify the offender,” Doyle told the Sun. “We have generated some new evidence and we are going all in.”
What happened to Roberts?
On the day of his death, Roberts was making a cash delivery to the TD Bank at the Agincourt Mall, pushing a cart loaded with currency, along with messenger Theodore Montgomery. When Roberts entered the mall, he was confronted by a waiting gunman.
The triggerman shot Roberts in the chest while Montgomery was shot in the arm by a second gunman. Roberts collapsed, mortally wounded, and Montgomery staggered into the bank branch.
Witnesses saw two suspects grabbing the money bags while a third covered them with a gun before fleeing through the library located just west of the bank. The thug covering the escape squeezed off several shots into the mall’s ceiling.
Roberts later died in hospital while Montgomery was treated and released. Brinks offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers.
The following morning, cops recovered a 1977 Oldsmobile Delta and a 1975 Torino, both stolen from Montreal, near the scene. Both cars had licence plates stolen in Ottawa in April 1980. A weapon believed to have been used in the bloodbath was located near the Torino.
“Over the years up until today, investigators have worked on this case, travelling numerous times to liaise with Montreal police, investigated countless tips from across the country and from the U.S.A.,” Doyle said.
“The investigation led to Montreal and the West End Gang.”
It is no coincidence that Montreal is also where St. Pete’s detectives are looking.
St. Pete’s Det. Brian Bilbrey told CBC News in 2018 that new evidence led them to believe the killers are in Montreal.
“We’re at the preliminary stages of proving the case, but we do have a couple of suspects that we’re looking at extremely closely,” Bilbrey said. “At least two suspects, dressed as elevator repairmen, were waiting for the delivery. When the driver was exiting the building they ambushed him, stole the messenger bag, and shot and killed him.”
Why the link to West End Gang?
The Florida caper was described as extensively planned, a hallmark of West End Gang heists. The killers then fled in a boat up the Intercoastal waterway before ditching the vessel 20 km north. From there, they entered a waiting car and fled.
Cops said that a Canadian driver’s licence used to rent the boat led them to Montreal. It was a fake. And Warner’s murder was pointless: There was no cash in the deposit bag, only non-negotiable cheques the bandits couldn’t cash.
Members of Boston’s Irish Winter Hill Gang pointed the investigators northward. And cops in the Sunshine State have hinted broadly they know who and where the killers are but lack the evidence to seal the deal.
“We have numerous items recovered from the scene (some of which were tested and analyzed at the time and some have been reanalyzed in the proceeding years) which we are beginning to pour over again and will be doing forensic analysis on,” Doyle said.
“As you know, the forensics (DNA analysis) has grown significantly in recent years, we hope to capitalize on that as it has assisted us in some recently solved cold case investigations.”
The killers would now be between 65 and 80 years old, if still alive. This would allow them plenty of time to stare at the door and wait for the knock.
And then, the cops will deliver a truncated missive: It’s over.
@HunterTOSun