The Lucknow Sentinel, 1994-09-14, Page 5Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, September 14, 1994 — Page 5
Life goes on in Inverhuron despite recent murder
By Scott Hilgendorff
Kincardine News staff
For residents of Inverhuron, life
goes on despite a murder in the
heart of their small cottage com-
munity.
Neighbors were surprised to learn
of the murder of Kestutis
Baltrusaitis at 30 Lake Street,
Inverhuron last Wednesday morning'
but stayed away from the lakeshore
home while more than a dozen
police from Kincardine, Mount
Forest and London began the com-
plicated process of piecing together
the murder scene.
Residents coming home more
than six hours after the body had
been discovered by a neighbor were
met by police vans, cruisers and
unmarked police cars that Tined the
street beside the home.
The creme scene had been secured
with the home surrounded by a
barrier of yellow, police tape.
The licence plates of residents
and the curious ,were recorded as
they drove past the home.
OPP constable Pat Gonzalez
could not release any information to
residents who wondered what had
happened as they drove past him.
His task was to keep a log of all
the licenses of vehicles and names
of pedestrians passing the scene
while investigators worked inside
the home.
The body was found around 10:30
Wednesday morning and it wasn't
.until almost 7 p.m. the following
night that residents were told a
murder had taken place.
Two friends of Baltrusaitis'
arrived Wednesday afternoon and
were visibly shaken as Detective
Balloons
draw cheers
-from page 4
began cheering wildly and throwing
their hats in the air. As they
watched, the wind caught the bal-
loon and moved it off south toward
the Si. Lawrence River. This was
the first human flight recorded in
'Canada."
. Interest in manned 'flight con-'
tinued to focus on lighter -than -air
craft during the second half of ,the
19th Century. Charles Page
designed • and constructed - a
"dirigible' (an airship that could be
steered): Page's vehicle was also
named Canada, and, consisted of a
pod, sporting a motor, propeller,
and steering rudders, slung beneath
•a pear-shaped gas -bag that was so
large that it took almost 24 hours to
inflate at the Montreal municipal
gas works. Page made his 'first
flight on July 31, 1879, when he
and • two companions flew from.
Montreal to St. Hyacinthe, Que. .
After the turn of the century,
when the world's attention shifted
to the development of heavier-than-
air flying machines, lighter -than -air
vehicles continued to command
public attention at exhibitions and
demonstrations across the country.
In 1911 Madame Barlatier created a
sensation, and became Canada's
first woman aviator, when she
piloted her husband's balloon on a
number of voyages. As late. as
1927, thousands of Canadians, stilt
fascinated by the idea of lighter -
than -air flight, turned out to witness
the gigantic British dirigible, the R-
100, floating peacefully across the
sky on .her maiden .voyage from
England to Canada.
Lighter -than -air vehicles provided
us with an important idea: that
human beings could actually fly,
Eventually, however, they proved
too expensive, too slow, and too
dangerous to compete success ally
with their heavier-than-air counter-
parts, Nevertheless, balloons and
dirigibles remain a dreamy and
appealing rift xlc of transportation,
drawing crowds to public displays,
;incl harkening back to a day when
any form of human Flight w;r,
something of a marvel. •
Constable Gord Johnston
interviewed them as the investiga-
tion proceeded.
Members of the Emergency
Response Team were on the scene
conducting a neighborhood search
around the home looking for any
evidence. They were also looking
for the murder weapon.
The search took them from
Inverhuron to Tiverton as they
walked through knee-deep grass
along roadside ditches for any evi-
dence.
Senior Constable Andy Burgess
of the Kincardine OPP said the
Emergency Response Team special-
izes in searches and securing crime
scenes.
He said they are a "first response
to emergencies at a medium level."
The next and highest level is the
OPP's Tactical Response Unit.
John Vandenhueval, one of the
investigators, alarmed a few passers
by when he fainted in a driveway
across from the home.
Without knowing what had hap-
pened and seeing all the police
vehicles and officers gathered
around to help, convinced some
people he was the reason for the
investigation.
Sergeant Bob Brigger said the
officer fainted from the unusually
high workload his investigative unit
was involved in.
Thursday, a special lighting
device was used in the home to
detect evidence such as fingerprints
or footprints on carpet that can't be
seen by the naked eye.
The home faces the lake and is
bordered by the beach road, Lake
Street at its front and Victoria
Street at its rear where a generator
was set up Hydro to supply power
for equipment in the investigation.
The windows of the large, wood
sided home were blocked off by
plastic tarps to keep light out while
the high-tech work was done.
Once the scene was videotaped a
path was cleared where evidence
wouldn't be disturbed so the body
could be removed.
At almost 7 p.m. investigators
gave the okay and Ken Davey of
Davey-Linklater Funderal Home,
Kincardine, removed the victim.
Sometime, before 11 p.m., OPP
released the information that
Baltrusaitis died from gunshot
wounds.
Officers continued to record
licence plates and names of cyclists
in the event a correlation between
names .
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