Serial killer sentenced to life behind bars

Ottawa’s first serial killer has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Camille Cleroux pleaded guilty Tuesday, to one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder.

Over a period of two decades, Cleroux killed his wives, Lise Roy and Jean Rock and his neighbour Paula Leclair.

Cleroux was originally scheduled for a pre-trial hearing Tuesday, but according to Crown prosecutors he changed his mind and decided admit to the killings because of the sheer evidence amassed against him.

Cleroux, looking much older than his 58 years, mumbled his guilty pleas and sat impassively, mostly with his arms crossed. Occasionally he would twist his fingers in his long, white beard. He spoke only to say he was hard of hearing, and he understood better in French.

The Crown meticulously outlined Cleroux’s crimes, starting with the death of his first wife, Lise Roy. Cleroux met Roy after his first marriage failed. In April 1990, afraid Roy would go to police and report him for molesting a youth, he bludgeoned Roy to death with a rock.

He buried her body in the backyard of their Heatherington row home and went to police, concocting a story that Roy had assaulted him and then left on a bus toward Montreal. Police issued an arrest warrant for Roy that would remain active until Paula Leclair’s death.

Late last year, Roy’s bones were found wrapped in butcher paper behind the row home. However, authorities only found leg, foot, hand and arm bones. The majority of her skeleton, including her skull has never been found.

Cleroux’s attempts to hide his crimes backfired, and in the 1990s, he was sentenced to three years in federal penitentiary for sexual assault.

Jean Rock was 21 years old when she met Cleroux. They moved in together in the early 1990’s. Their relationship was rocky, but Rock stayed with Cleroux, resuming her relationship with him when he was released from prison in 1997.

She moved out on a number of occasions, but according to the Courts, Cleroux killed her when she threatened to move out for good.

In 2003, he took her on a walk and bludgeoned her to death with a rock, burying her where he killed her.  He would later move her body several times.

Cleroux tried to cover his tracks by hiring a woman to write letters to Rock’s father, saying she had left Cleroux and lived with a trucker named Pierre. Over the years, John Rock received letters two or three times a year, weaving a happy life for his daughter–one that did not want to include her family members.

The woman who wrote those letters was paid $10 for each one she wrote between 2004 and 2010.

He wanted a better view

Cleroux would kill once again in 2010.

Paula Leclair was described as being outgoing and friendly. She and Cleroux would go on walks together on occasion. Cleroux told police he wanted to move into an apartment at 2969 Fairlea Crescent with the same layout as Leclair’s. He thought his furniture would be a better fit there and he wanted a better view.

She refused when he proposed that he move in as a roommate.

Cleroux then told police he went out into the woods near the location he had buried Rock and dug a shallow grave.

On May 20, 2010, he invited Leclair out for a walk. While in the woods, Cleroux pulled out a six-inch kitchen knife he had stolen from the restaurant he worked at. He forced her toward her grave, stabbing her in the back repeatedly. Finally he bludgeoned her to death with a rock.

Cleroux then went back to the apartment and began throwing out her belongings, telling some she had won $50,000 and had gone on a trip to Disney Land. He told others she agreed he could move in, and that she had decided she might never move back.

Throughout the police investigation, Cleroux remained in contact with authorities. During one interview with police, he cracked and admitted to killing Leclair.  

He led police to her body.

Justice served?

Cleroux was originally charged with three counts of first-degree murder, but according to the Crown, two of those charges were downgraded because he was the only person who knew how Lise Roy and Jean Rock met their deaths.

They had no other information to corroborate the story that Cleroux told them.

Still, for each woman’s death, Cleroux was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. The defence requested he be granted credit for time served, but the judge refused.

“We are all comforted to some extent that you are incarcerated and probably will remain incarcerated for the rest of your life,” she said.

Rock’s family delivered tearful victim impact statements before the court.

“I remember that she is no longer here to make new memories with and it breaks my heart all over again,” said Rock’s brother Daniel.

“How can you look in the mirror, knowing what you have done to these innocent people?” asked Donna Rock, Jean’s stepmother. “Our home will be forever tainted. The nightmare you have caused will never subside.”

When asked by media to describe Cleroux, Donna said there were no words.

“Oh please don’t ask me that,” she said. “I just don’t have… any type of word I have for him is too nice of a word to be honest with you. My husband called him an animal, but that seems to nice to me to be called an animal. I never liked him.”

She added, the stress got to her husband, John. Court had to be adjourned for two hours because he suffered a seizure. Paramedics were called to the Elgin Street Court House, but he was not transported to hospital.

Rock’s mother, Audrey, said she was happy with Cleroux’s sentence.

“For me, I’ve forgiven him and I will move forward,” said Audrey. “I believe in God and I truly hold on to that right now, because there’s nothing else. My daughter will never come back.”