BY CRAIG GILBERT
Two dogs ran free around a Chelmsford farm property Friday morning as five members of the Special Investigations Unit worked inside to piece together the final hours of Michael Karchie.
Karchie?s body was discovered with an apparent gunshot wound inside his residence at 258 Bradley Road around 2:40 am Friday morning, three hours after Greater Sudbury Police Service officers responded to a domestic dispute there.
Police secured the perimeter when they arrived at 10:40 pm Thursday. Blocks away, NDP MPP Shelley Martel celebrated her re-election in Nickel Belt. A neighbour said police had the road blocked in both directions and turned away several cars while they were there.
Wishing not to be named, the neighbour speculated that Karchie, 42, inflicted the gunshot wound himself.
Claude Bradley, Karchie?s landlord, lives two doors down on his expansive farm property. He declined to comment, saying he would rather let the investigators do their job.
Three investigators and two forensic identification technicians from the SIU were doing just that Friday, and details were hard to come by.
A Sudbury police officer on the scene Friday morning said the investigation is ongoing and he wasn?t able to comment.
Contacted in Toronto, SIU communications officer Rose Hong said an investigation is underway and SIU officers are investigating the nature and extent of police involvement.
Bradley Road stretches north and south from the end of Joanette Street, just north of Nickel Belt Camping. The neighbourhood is one made up mostly of farmers, where the houses are well spaced.
The residence in question has a farmer?s field to the north and brush to the south. An old metal swing set,
birdfeeders and firewood occupy the front lawn of the bluish-white, two-storey house.
A patio door facing the road leads to a short patio that runs the length of the front of the house. At least seven vehicles dot the property between the four dilapidated structures to the north of the principal house.
Two police vans and one Sudbury police cruiser left the scene shortly after a Northern Life reporter arrived just after noon. An SIU van, a Sudbury cruiser and an unmarked cruiser remained. The SIU is an independent, civilian unit that investigates circumstances involving police and civilians that have resulted in serious injury, sexual
assault or death.