Colonel Russell Williams.
Toronto Police say they will be working with the Ontario Provincial Police to probe whether historic sexual assault cases in Canada's largest city could be related to the ongoing murder investigation focusing on Colonel Russell Williams.
"Obviously the Toronto Police Service will be working with the OPP, as required, to review any unsolved cases in our jurisdiction that may be relevant," said Constable Wendy Drummond, a police spokeswoman.
But, she added, "we can't speculate with regard to any evidentiary or investigative matters."
Col. Williams, the 46-year-old appointed commander of Canadian Forces Base Trenton last summer, was charged earlier this week in connection with two murders and two sexual assaults that occurred around his Eastern Ontario military base.
His shocking arrest has prompted much speculation that he could be involved in other historic, or "cold" cases in the jurisdictions he has passed through.
In the 1980s, Col. Williams - who went by the name Russ Sovka in his teens after his mother remarried - attended Upper Canada College high school in Toronto, before studying economics and political science at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus.
He then enlisted in the military. Through the 1990s, he was posted to bases in Western, Eastern, and Central Canada.
One published account of Col. Williams' alleged statement to detectives suggests he said his involvement in sex crimes started only few months ago, after he was appointed to command CFB Trenton.
This may be tempering police interest in probing cold cases at this time.
Regardless, detectives probing the Eastern Ontario crimes have been flooded with calls from Portage la Prairie to Halifax, as families, police and reporters ask whether the ongoing Eastern Ontario investigation could shed light on any old crimes.
That's preliminary, according to the Ontario Provincial Police, who say their priority remains gathering evidence on the current cases.
"Right now the core investigation is still around the four incidents now before the courts," said OPP Sergeant Kristine Rae, adding that police are still scouring crime scenes.
"There are services calling in to seek information," she said, adding that there are "other families that have called as well."
Sgt. Rae would not say whether the OPP has a DNA sample from Col. Williams, which could prove an invaluable tool as the investigations move forward.
"That is part of the investigation and you have to protect the integrity of the investigation at this point."
Since the 1990s police have been taking DNA from suspects is in sex crime cases and trying to match them with evidence obtained from crime scenes. Parliament passed laws creating a national DNA databank in 2000.
Police often work to reheat cold cases by reexamining old crime-scene evidence such as hair, blood and semen of potential suspects, which can survive for years after a crime takes place. Some of these samples are sent to forensic scientists who, in turn, input it into the "crime scene index," or CSI component, of the national DNA databank.
The oldest scrap of evidence in the national databank actually dates back to 1964 - decades before the DNA forensic science became a reality. Scraps of evidence from more than 50,000 crime scenes are reflected in the database.
"I like to look at the DNA databank as a justice time machine," Dr. Ron Fourney, the scientist in charge of the databank, said in an interview. "DNA is often a silent witness."
He said he could not speak to any individual cases.
Colin Freeze