the fifth estate uncovers evidence that a possible suspect was never investigated by the OPP. more

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PHILIP BURNS

Of the dozen of children and adults on the county road that hot June evening, nobody could reliably place Steven in or near the bush where Lynn's body was later found.

Then the police introduced some interesting reverse logic ... to prove that Steven and Lynn had gone into the bush, they only had to prove that at some point they WEREN'T on the road. (see the map)

Enter little Philip Burns. He was 10 and he was supposed to be home early. He started walking just after 7 ... a boy named Richard Gelalty on a bike passed him. The kid on the bike said he met Lynn and Steven on Steven's bike up near the school.

But Philip said he didn't meet them... The prosecution would persuade a jury that if he didn't meet them on the road, it could only mean that they'd gone into the bush.

But a close reading of Philip's police statement suggests that there were a number of people he didn't see on the road that night ... people who said they'd seen him ... which shouldn't be particularly surprising for a 10 year old on an evening that was still unremarkable.

Plus there is a serious timing problem. Police timed the bike ride from the school to the bush at about 3 minutes. - and if, as the prosecution says, Truscott passed Gelatly around 7:25 he and Harper would make it to the bush by about 7:28.

Police also timed Philip Burns' walk down to the minute - and by their own calculations he would have been at the corner of bush at around 7:16 - possibly as long as 10 minutes before Steve would have arrived. Hardly surprising he didn't see Steve.

What did Philip Burns see or not see on that highway? The fifth estate tracked down Philip Burns and today he tells a confusingly different tale. He now says he told one story to the police and the jury - but later, he had a vision. Below are excerpts from our conversation with him:

MACINTYRE: You were asked if you had seen Steven Truscott or Lynn at any point on your way home.

BURNS: No.

MACINTYRE: And you said you hadn't.

BURNS: No. That's correct.

MACINTYRE: And presumably you weren't lying to them.

BURNS: No.

MACINTYRE: But then subsequent to that ... something else comes up, you remember something.

BURNS: Yeah, yes I did.

MACINTYRE: And what?

BURNS: I remembered seeing two people back at the corner of the woods pushing a green racing bike and ... it jogged my memory that Steve had a green racing bike.

MACINTYRE: Two people?

BURNS: Two people.

MACINTYRE: What two people?

BURNS: I have no idea.... Who it was I have no idea .... I'm not saying that it was Steve. All I remember seeing is two people back there. And a green racing bike. And I know Steve had a green racing bike at that time, I believe.

MACINTYRE: Boy, girl, two boys, two girls?

BURNS: Not sure .... Whether they were two boys, boy and a girl, two girls I have no idea. I have no idea.

MACINTYRE: See it strikes me that if you could've seen the bicycle back there you could've seen who it was.

BURNS: No, it was a good quarter of a mile away. Faces I could not see, no. I don't remember who the people, where they were I don't even remember the road to tell you the truth. I know approximately where it is. But that's about all.

During the interview, Burns pointed to a map to indicate where he says he saw these two people - see the "X" marked in the map below, at the far end of the bush, quite a distance from where the body was found. See map.

If Burns did see anyone, it seems highly unlikely it was Truscott and Harper. For one thing, the already serious timing problem gets even worse. It would have taken Truscott and Harper many more minutes to walk that far along the bush trail - making it almost impossible for them to have been there around 7:16 pm when Burns was near the trail.

There is a second timing problem. The already very narrow window of opportunity for Truscott to have committed the crime gets even narrower if Truscott and Harper took the time to walk that far down the bush trail and then back again to the point where body was found.

A bigger problem is Jocelyn Gaudet. Burns met Gaudet just as she was coming out of the trail. Gaudet says she was looking explicitly for either Lynne or Truscott. It is hard to see how he could accidentally see two people but Gaudet who says she was on a mission to find them failed to see anyone -- she would either have passed them on the trail or they would have been directly in front of her.

Burns met Jocelyn Gaudet and Butch George near the trail to the bush. According to his and their testimony, he told them he had NOT seen Steven and Lynn. It seems hard to explain why a little boy would not remember seeing two people just moments before being asked about them.

MACINTYRE: You said "George, he was riding down the road towards the river and he got off his bike and he came up to me and he asked if I saw Steve or Lynn. I said I never saw them."

BURNS: It may have... I don't remember. To tell you, if that's what it says that's probably what happened. But I don't remember.

MACINTYRE: But it just strikes me that the question "Did you see Steve or Lynn?" Wouldn't have meant anyting at that particular moment and if you had thought you saw them?

BURNS: --- I would've said so. Yes.

Days later he told the police the same thing - that he had not seen anyone, much less Truscott, near the bush.

MACINTYRE: In the police statement, which was just a few days later there's absolutely no reference to having seen anything.

BURNS: Right.... I understand that.

MACINTYRE: Where do you think this vision came from?

BURNS: I'm not sure.

MACINTYRE: Seems to be that if you had seen something up in that field and you remembered it then you would've told a police officer.

BURNS: If I had of remembered it, then I would have yes.

MACINTYRE: And isn't it weird that you didn't remember it until some time later?

BURNS: That is true. I always thought of that why did I think of it later. And, I say, I don't remember when I remembered it.

Here is a copy of Burns' police statement.