CAUTION: This story contains graphic content some readers may find disturbing.
Sitting in an Oshawa courtroom behind plexiglass, accused double killer Adam Strong watched a videotaped interview that was being shown on a monitor to the judge, lawyers and families of the victims.
A slight smirk on Strong’s face, Rori Hache’s biological father ran out at one point sobbing while Kandis Fitzpatrick’s father sat in disbelief by what he was hearing.
In the first two hours of an 11-hour interrogation recorded on Nov. 8, 2018, Adam Strong seems at ease with Durham Regional Police polygraph expert Det. Paul Mitton, asking the officer for a good meal and a cigraette while addressing rumors about a bounty for his head.
“Have you heard anything about a bounty on my head?” asked Strong.
READ MORE: Durham officer who arrested Adam Strong testifies at murder trial
“I’ve heard there are people unhappy. I’ve heard nothing about money. I don’t have my ear to the ground about something like that,” Mitton replied.
Mitton asked Strong if he knew his rights and reminded him that he didn’t have to talk to him. He also asked Strong if he had spoken to his lawyer since being charged with the murder of 19-year-old Kandis Fitzpatrick earlier in the day. She went missing in 2008. Fitzpatrick’s DNA was found on a knife in Strong’s apartment and her blood was found in Strong’s freezer.
“No, I’m good,” Strong responded.
Strong indicated he would not be speaking about the case as he did in the first interrogation, which was shown in court on week one of the trial. He asked why the first two detectives were not back.
“We do find it more beneficial if somebody’s already interviewed somebody and for lack of a better word, it didn’t go well, well you didn’t say a lot,” Mitton replied.
“I didn’t lie to them even once,” Strong responded.
Mitton called Strong “smart” to which Strong replied, “just not stupid.”
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But after about two hours of chatting about Strong’s passion for scuba diving, hunting and the fact that he had not had a good meal since being arrested in December 2017, the conversation turned to the torso found in the Oshawa Harbour on Sept. 11, 2017.
Strong said when he saw the news that someone had found a torso, he panicked. Mitton told the accused that Rori Hache was not even on the police radar at that point because she was not reported missing until the following day. Strong then told Mitton that he knew the 18-year-old was sleeping on the side of the Oshawa Creek.
Mitton also informed Strong that she was pregnant at the time of her murder, according to her family.
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“She was not pregnant. I don’t want to go into how I know, but I know,” Strong replied.
The officer explained that Hache was just barely pregnant, like not three months, at which point Strong snapped back.
“I could bet my life. There’s no way getting around that I chopped her up,” Strong said.
He went on to ask, “How much of her body did you guys get back?” and wondered “What clogged the pipes?”
When Mitton explained large portions of flesh were found, Strong called it “unfortunate.”
“It was just bad luck. I got greedy. That’s all,” he added.
Strong also made explicit references to Rori’s organs. At times, his utterances were so disturbing that family members sitting in the body of the courtroom ran out in tears.
He also talked about his violent sex life and told Mitton that he never choked anyone to death before, during or after sex. But Strong would not elaborate why he was telling him that nor if it pertained to the murders of Hache or Fitzpatrick.
Mitton appeared to encourage Strong to speak by putting him at ease. At one point, agreeing to order him a meal from Wendy’s and later getting Strong a cigarette letting him smoke it in the interrogation room.
Strong, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in relation to the deaths of Hache and Fitzpatrick, was arrested nearly 11 months earlier after police were called to his home on McMillan Drive in downtown Oshawa by plumbers who found what appeared to be flesh in the pipes of the home where Strong rented the basement unit.
He also inquired about getting back the jewelry that had been seized when he was arrested in December 2017. The detective insinuated that police thought they might be trophies because he talked about procuring them when officers took the necklaces off his neck.
“It took me a long time to buy that stuff. They thought they were trophies? I’m like, ‘Oh my God no,'” Strong clarified.
Strong told Mitton he was amazed by how well he has been treated since his arrest and can’t believe “no one has taken a shot at me when I’m out in the yard,” referring to the fact that there is a road not far from the prison yard.
The trial continues.
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