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Information vital to police-April 30, 2000
The Calgary Sun -- Final
News Saturday, April 29, 2000 23
HOOKERS' HELP VITAL TO POLICE
OFFICERS SEEK MORE EVIDENCE IN SEX CASES
PETER SMITH
CALGARY SUN
Calgary cops want city hookers as allies as they hunt for evidence against a
suspected western Canada prostitute beater.
Convicted Lethbridge pimp Barry Thomas Niedermier is already charged with 14
offences against seven Vancouver sex-trade workers.
But investigators in Vancouver and Calgary are taking calls daily from women who
believe they were victimized by the suspect.
And major crime detectives in Vancouver are still probing possible links between
Niedermier and the mysterious disappearance of 27 prostitutes off that city's
streets.
Calgary RCMP investigators have sent files on eight unsolved prostitute murders
to Vancouver.
In Calgary, several women have told workers in various social agencies they
believed they were victims of the same man.
"We want these women to come forward and talk to us, help us to build up a
picture of this man's activities in Calgary over the years," said city
police vice unit Det. John Fulton.
Niedermier is charged with 14 offences of assault, sexual assault, kidnapping,
unlawful confinement and administering a noxious substance against seven
prostitutes between 1995 and 1997.
The Edmonton Sun -- Final
News Friday, April 28, 2000 27
MORE COMPLAINTS ABOUT PIMP HEARD
SUN NEWS SERVICES
CALGARY
As Barry Niedermier made his first court appearance in Vancouver yesterday,
phones were ringing off the hook for vice cops across Western Canada.
Women in Calgary and Vancouver were calling in claiming they too were victims of
the man already facing 14 offences for allegedly attacking seven prostitutes in
Vancouver.
Other callers phoned information in to police, who are probing for possible
links between the suspect and a string of unsolved prostitute murders in
Alberta, and even more missing women in B.C.
"Our investigators have taken information from six new complainants who are
alleging they are among his victims," said Anne Drennan of the Vancouver
police.
"Investigations into these complaints are now under way."
Vice unit detectives in Calgary have taken more than a dozen calls, including
similar complaints from some women claiming they were victims.
"We've also taken calls from people giving us information about this man's
movements and dealings they've had with him," said Det. John Fulton of the
Calgary vice unit.
"This is extremely helpful, and we encourage anyone else who can help us to
contact the unit."
Wearing a grey T-shirt, sporting long hair and a salt-and-pepper beard,
Niedermier, 43, appeared at ease in his first appearance on 14 counts of
assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, unlawful confinement and administering a
noxious substance.
He smiled at friends in the court before being returned to custody prior to a
bail hearing next Thursday.
The charges against the convicted pimp from Lethbridge involve seven prostitutes
and date from 1995 to 1997.
Officers from the Vancouver missing women task force are continuing their probe
into possible links between the suspect and the disappearance of 27 prostitutes
off the city's red light district streets.
Calgary RCMP are sending DNA samples to Vancouver for comparison in eight
unsolved homicides, and Calgary city police are looking at possible links
between the suspect and the unsolved homicides of two young women.
Police in other parts of Alberta are also scrambling to see if Niedermier may be
connected to unsolved murders of prostitutes elsewhere.
None of the charges laid against Niedermier involve the 27 missing prostitutes,
but he was convicted of pimping a 14-year-old girl in 1990, serving 14 months in
jail.
The Calgary Sun -- Final
News Thursday, April 27, 2000 4
TIES TO MURDERS EXPLORED
LETHBRIDGE MAN IS FACING MULTIPLE CHARGES AFTER SEVEN VANCOUVER PROSTITUTES
ASSAULTED
MIKE D'AMOUR
CALGARY SUN
SUBJECT: CRIME; ATTACK; PROSTITUTION; CANADA
A Lethbridge pimp known for tossing $100 bills from the windows of fancy sports
cars may be tied to the unsolved murders of at least 10 Calgary and southern
Alberta women, police said.
Barry Thomas Niedermier, a 43-year-old convicted pimp, was arrested in
Lethbridge Friday and faces more than a dozen charges in connection with
assaults on seven Vancouver prostitutes from 1995 to 1997.
Police in B.C. laid the charges during their investigation into 27 missing
east-side Vancouver hookers.
Now, the Calgary Police Service is looking at possible links with at least two
Calgary murders of young women.
INTERESTED IN CASE
"The CPS is certainly interested in any possible links between (Niedermier's)
alleged activities in the Vancouver area and any unsolved crimes of a similar
nature here in Calgary," said city police Insp. Harvey Cenaiko.
Two of those unsolved crimes are the murders of 16-year-old street kid Jennifer
Janz and 20-year-old Rebecca Boutilier, a prostitute who worked Calgary streets.
Janz's badly beaten body was discovered in the Valley Ridge area of northwest
Calgary on Aug. 13, 1991.
Death was attributed to a blunt blow to the chest which caused fatal internal
injuries.
On March 11, 1993, Boutilier's corpse was found in the 7000 block of McKnight
Blvd. N.E.
She had been stabbed to death.
Cenaiko said police are looking for more victims.
"The vice unit has been searching through old files and documents from the
1990s to see if Niedermier was active in the city and to determine what those
activities were," he said.
Niedermier has been charged by B.C. police with 14 counts of assault, sexual
assault, kidnapping, robbery, administering a noxious substance and unlawful
confinement.
It is expected he will be transferred to Vancouver from Alberta this week.
While local police search their files, the RCMP is sending evidence from eight
separate female murder victims to Vancouver to be compared to evidence already
collected from the accused.
"All those are unsolved murders of women in the Calgary and southern
Alberta area between 1976 and 1992," said RCMP Cpl. Patrick Webb.
"We are supplying DNA found at those crime scenes to be compared to
Niedermier's DNA," he said.
While that may be a lot of evidence to hand to the Vancouver police officers,
Webb said that may just be the beginning.
"There may be more later because we just gave them these eight because we
had the DNA evidence readily available," he said, refusing to name the
victims.
"We expect it will take them several weeks to get the results because
cities from across the country will be making the same requests."
As well, Webb said Mounties in the northern part of Alberta have also sent DNA
evidence from at least one unsolved murder.
SEEKS EVIDENCE
"And if I was an Edmonton city police officer and had even one similar
(unsolved murder), I would send that evidence down."
Vancouver police Const. Anne Drennan said it is not immediately known when
Niedermier is expected to arrive there, but members of a special unit in her
force are anxious to talk to him regarding the disappearance of 27 prostitutes.
"It was as part of that investigation when information about Niedermier was
received," she said.
Thirty-one women, all of whom were at one time involved in drugs or the sex
trade, have gone missing since 1978 from Vancouver's downtown east-side.
Last year, police found four of the missing women -- two died -- one from heart
problems, the other from a drug overdose.
The other two were found alive, but Drennan would not release details about
them.
Niedermier, who was living in Vancouver in 1995-97, is well-known to both
Vancouver and Lethbridge police, she said.
"There has been no link identified with the missing prostitutes, but we
would call him a person of interest and our nine-member Missing Women Task Force
will be wanting to speak to him at length about the missing women's file."
SENTENCED TO 14 MONTHS
Niedermier was sentenced to 14 months in jail for being a pimp to a 14-year-old
girl 10 years ago.
Niedermier met the girl in Calgary as a customer.
He then took her to Vancouver and put her to work on the streets there.
The B.C. officer who arrested Niedermier said the girl was so frightened she
wanted her teddy bear from the grimy east-side room where she was being kept
before she agreed to turn in her pimp.
Police there said Niedermier was known for the succession of bedraggled women
who passed through his door and manic behaviour police say was fuelled by an
out-of-control drug addiction.
"He'd be the perfect 'This is what drugs can do to you' example," said
an acquaintance who once watched Niedermier drop $100 bills from the window of
one of several sports cars he drove.
Calgary Sun-Top Story-Aug 9/99
VPD get Calgary murder DNA
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