Alex McCauley always believed Renée Sweeney's murderer would eventually be caught. McCauley was the chief of Sudbury Regional Police in 1998, the year of Sweeney's murder. That service evolved into Greater Sudbury Police after amalgamation.
“I always believed it would be solved,” said McCauley, who was the chief of Sudbury's police service from 1994 to 2002, adding that he wasn't sure whether or not it would be in his lifetime.
“As new technology comes along, and watching the progression over the years that the investigators were taking, I was very encouraged that this could be resolved.”
It's too early to say at this point whether the case has actually been solved. Police have arrested 39-year-old Robert Steven Wright and charged him with first degree murder. Wright was in bail court today. The charges have not been proven in a court of law.
McCauley said cracking a case this old is “not the norm, but it's not anything beyond the pale.”
Sweeney, 23 at the time of her murder, was working at an adult video store on Paris Street. At 11 a.m. on Jan. 27, 1998, someone entered the store, attacked her and killed her in a most brutal fashion. She suffered deep lacerations and more than 30 stab wounds. Still, she fought, scratching at her assailant and leaving his DNA in the patches of skin caught beneath her fingernails as she struggled to fight him off.
Wright was arrested Dec. 11 at the North Bay Regional Heath Centre, where he works as a laboratory technician. He was an 18-year-old student at Lockerby Composite School at the time of the incident.
McCauley said he's “as certain as he can be” that Greater Sudbury Police effected a thorough investigation that led them to Wright.
“I'm satisfied that they would be fairly confident that they had the right person,” he said. “There is due process to follow, so we'll see where it goes from there.
“I think they've probably done their due diligence to put this person in custody.”
McCauley said he's proud of the work investigators did at the time of the murder, as well as the more recent work of the Greater Sudbury Police that led to Wright's arrest.
“Chief (Paul) Pederson's team has done a great job, and they never lost sight of the big picture,” he said. “Right from day one, that's always been an ongoing investigation that was keen in the minds of investigators and administrators alike.”
McCauley said Sweeney's murder “shocked” the community back in 1998.
“It was a very horrific homicide,” he said. “It was done during the daytime in a very populated area in the commercial section of the South End of the city, and so people were very concerned and very upset.”
