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A Knock on the Door: In December 2001, the Connelly family was told that their 22-year-old son John Kevin Connelly was dead. Police claimed that he committed suicide. But the Connellys did not believe that their son killed himself. And they set out to find the truth behind the official story.
Aired January 18,
2006 at 9pm
on CBC-TV

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REPORTER: Bob McKeown
PRODUCER: Morris Karp
A KNOCK ON THE DOOR
A Knock on the Door is the story of one family's fight to get the truth about how their son died.

Dr. John Connelly
Dr. Connelly does not believe that his son committed suicide.
POLICE INVESTIGATION: SUICIDE
On the afternoon of December 9, 2001, Dr. John Connelly answered the knock on the door at his home in Ottawa. He was told that his 22-year-old son, John Kevin Connelly, was dead. The Ottawa police officer gave him a phone number to the Toronto Detective investigating the young man's death.

At the other end of the line was Detective Scott Fargey of the Toronto police. If the Connellys thought it couldn't get worse, it did when Det. Fargey told Dr. Connelly that his son had committed suicide. That he had jumped off his ten-story downtown Toronto apartment building.

The detective told Dr. Connelly that the case was closed. "He said you don't have to come to Toronto. He says I'm just putting the finishing touches on this investigation and he said then I'm going on holidays for three weeks."

FAMILY: A PUZZLING DEATH
Even though Det. Fargey told the Connellys there was no point coming to Toronto, they left Ottawa immediately. In Toronto, they demanded to see John's body and found the first sign that made them believe that the police investigation had not been close to thorough.

Dr. Connelly immediately noticed bruises on John's forehead. "These were blunt, blunt force trauma bruises that radiated around John's head." But, John had been found lying on his back. How did the bruises get there?
suicide note
A note, written by John Connelly was found in the apartment, but the family had questions about its authenticity.
(Read the note)

The Connellys left the morgue believing that those bruises would be explained in their son's autopsy.  They had no doubt this would happen because their son's death was sudden and unexpected, with suspicious circumstances.  They later discovered that his body only received a cursory external examination.

The Toronto police did not believe John's death was suspicious. They officially ruled John Kevin Connelly's death a suicide then, and have not changed their position to this day.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
For the Connellys, questions continued to mount.  Questions about the circumstances of John's death, the official police version, the condition of John's body, the authenticity of what the police call a suicide note, questions about the Equivocal Death Analysis, the psychological profile the police painted of their son to explain why they concluded he committed suicide, and questions about the reliability of a witness who provided the bulk of the information for that profile.

The Connellys found a supporter in Scott Newark, a prominent former crown attorney and one of Canada's foremost victims' advocates. He wrote a report urging the police to re-open the official story on John Connelly's death.

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