Province to announce lead on Byron Carr cold case review next week

Justice Minister Blois-Thompson says he'll be announcing next week who will be leading the review into how police handled the Byron Carr Cole case. He says it'll be somebody from off-island, and he's not ruling out a public inquiry, depending on what this review uncovers. Carr was found dead in his home in 1988. He'd been strangled with a towel, then later stabbed with a knife. Police dropped the charges against Todd Joseph Irving after it was revealed that Charlottetown police lost key evidence. Especially for Byron Carr's family. In the legislature Friday, Liberal Carolyn Simpson called for a full public inquiry into what happened. Byron Carr's family needs to be able to have sincere closure. After all these decades, the community needs to know that should anything as horrific as has ever happened again, that our police services and investigators and those responsible for the material that's collected on scene have a different process in place. The Byron car murder is one of Prince Ireland's dark spot in our history here, Mr. Speaker. It was very disheartening for islanders, the community, and his family. It's important that... This doesn't happen again. We're not going to be able to solve the crime, but, Mr. Speaker, if we can prevent another family from going through this, Mr. Speaker, that's important. Thompson called the loss of so much evidence alarming. Police confirmed in court it lost the towel and knife and the drywall where somebody had scrawled the chilling words, I will kill again, and that it knew as far back as 2007 that key evidence was missing. Thompson says he wants the review to get to the bottom of what happened and why the Crown wasn't told. The Crown had those questions too. Why didn't we know sooner? Uncertainty as to what actually happened. Byron Carr's family says it welcomes an independent, third-party review of how police handled the investigation. Charlottetown police say it will cooperate fully. Thompson says he hopes this review can be completed in a timely manner and that it provides closure to the Carr family. He says all of the findings will be made public. Wayne Thibodeau, CBC News, Charlottetown.