Chapter 1: A Body Is Found It was Sunday, October 20, 1974, and the first snowfall of the season had come early in Halifax. By five o''clock Sunday morning, the cold and windy rainstorm that had swept into the city overnight had turned into a blustering snowstorm that had left nearly thirty-three centimetres of snow in its wake. In the south end of the city, the snowfall had turned the dreary fall landscape in Point Pleasant Park into a colourful and idyllic setting. It was a photographer''s paradise, enough so that a young couple who lived nearby went into the park late Sunday afternoon to take some pictures. Roger Bradbury and Catherine Carroll were faculty members in the biology department at Dalhousie University. In their spare time they were avid amateur photographers. Now, with the park filled with clusters of gold and russet leaves against a blanket of fresh white snow, the couple realized that it was a rare opportunity for them to capture the moment of the changing seasons on film. It was just after five o''clock when they went into the park.

With nearly an hour of daylight remaining, they knew that they would have plenty of time to take some pictures and enjoy the colourful blend of fall and winter scenery. Strolling aimlessly, they made their way along a winding network of paths and walkways that led them deeper into the woods. About fifteen minutes after they had entered the park, the couple separated briefly. While Roger stopped to photograph some fall leaves that had caught his interest, Catherine continued on alone along the narrow pathway they had been following. A small clearing soon came into sight, and from where she was walking, Catherine saw that it was a picnic area. There were some garbage cans and a picnic table covered with snow. At the edge of the clearing there was a small stand of birch trees. Although the area was secluded and darkened by late afternoon shadows, Catherine thought she saw something hanging between two of the birches.

She called back to Roger, then waited until he caught up with her and could see what she was looking at for himself. As they looked at the object from a distance, it appeared to them to be a mannequin or some kind of scarecrow -- probably the premature work of a Halloween prankster, Roger thought. He went into the clearing for a closer look. Catherine stayed behind and watched from the pathway. A few feet from the birch trees, Roger stopped abruptly. His heart pounded and his stomach churned; in front of him, suspended by its arms between two trees and with its knees almost touching the ground, was a human body. Roger could see that it was a youth, and that he was dead. His half-naked and mutilated body was strung up crucifixion-style between two small birches in the biggest public park in Halifax.

There were three stab wounds in his upper abdomen and lower chest area. Below them there was a fourth and much larger wound. It was a long gaping slash with some of his intestines and part of his stomach spilled out and hanging down grotesquely. It looked as if an attempt had been made to disembowel him. And there was blood, lots of blood. There were massive blood stains on his white T-shirt and blood was caked and frozen on his flesh where it had run down over his bare stomach and loins. But oddly, the snow beneath his body was fresh and white, with no trace of blood at all. Swollen and discoloured, his wrists were lashed to the birches with lengths of white, plastic-coated clothesline.

His blue jeans and underwear had been pulled down below his knees. Still encased in his rumpled jeans, his legs were bound together with four loops of the clothesline, knotted at the back. Mouth agape, his head hung back at a painful angle and his eyes stared vacantly at the snow-covered treetops. Shocked by the gruesome discovery they had made, Catherine and Roger hurried back to the park superintendent''s office and telephoned the Halifax Police Department. "I touched it on the right arm to see if it was real," Roger told police. "But it was cold and stiff and lifeless to the touch." It was that call that marked the start of an investigation into what would become one of the most bizarre and shocking murder cases in Nova Scotia history.