A former Toronto police officer who spent 17 years in the homicide squad called the detailed confession given during a video interrogation between veteran Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS) Det. Paul Mitton and accused double killer Adam Strong “pretty rare.”
The court exhibit obtained by Global News was shown during week two of the murder trial. The 11-hour interview was conducted on Nov. 8, 2018. Strong had just learned his indignity to a human body charge had been upgraded to two counts of first-degree murder in relation to the deaths of 18-year-old Rori Hache and 19-year-old Kandis Fitzpatrick. Strong pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The teens went missing from downtown Oshawa in August 2017 and 2008, respectively. Rori’s torso was found in the Oshawa harbor on Sept. 11, 2017, and her body parts were discovered in Strong’s basement apartment after plumbers discovered what they believed to be human flesh in the backed-up pipes and called police.
During an extensive forensic examination of the apartment, police said they found Fitzpatrick’s DNA on a knife in the kitchen and her blood in the freezer where Hache’s dismembered remains were also discovered.
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Mitton, who has since retired from DRPS, made Strong feel at ease by making him feel like he was in control, Mike Davis told Global News after viewing the video interview.
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Examining the Adam Strong interrogation video -
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Video statement by Adam Strong shown at murder trial -
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Interrogation video shown at trial of Adam Strong -
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During the interview, Strong confessed to dismembering Hache and seemed obsessed with knowing more about how the torso looked when it was discovered in Lake Ontario. He also called himself “a bad procrastinator,” admitting to Mitton that he did not dismember the rest of Rori’s body which he had been storing in a freezer in his apartment until Christmas Eve because it was not something he was looking forward to doing.
Strong would not tell the veteran polygraph expert if he had anything to do with the murders of the two teens, but admitted both had been in his apartment.
Mitton seemed to get Strong to feel at ease after agreeing to buy him dinner from Wendy’s and finding him a cigarette. Strong told the detective he was resigned to life in prison, but wanted to make a deal for certain perks such as internet access.
“I just want to be comfortable in jail. That’s all I want for whatever years I have left,” said Strong, telling Mitton that he would be safer in jail than back out on the streets.
“This is a very skilled interviewer,” said Davis.
“The interviewer is looking for something that only you, the police, know, and this is what’s referred to as hold-back evidence. This is the true test: to see if the accused knows something that nobody else knows and if he comes out with it, it is a “gotcha” moment.”
The trial continues.
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