A knock on the door: How did John Connelly die? (2006) - The Fifth Estate

[Music] [Applause] the Fifth Estate twenty-two-year-old John Connolly seemed to have the world on a string so when he suddenly died the official explanation shocked his family I said god no that's just not possible that's not John they analyzed that official story detail by detail and concluded he was dead wrong impossible it's a fabrication it's been fabricated to fit what the Toronto Police Services wanted to create now the authorities have a fight on their hands if anybody thinks they're gonna blow up John and Gloria Connolly they're in for a surprise good evening and welcome to the fifth estate I'm Bob McEwen tonight a mystery the one that is you will see need never have been mysterious at all the mystery of how young John Connelly met his sudden death the official story is that it really isn't mysterious that the answer suicide was obvious but John Connolly's family can't and won't buy that they say the authorities jump the gun solve the case far too quickly missed important clues and got it all wrong we've looked into the Connolly case and found a lot of evidence to back the family up in their view but take a look for yourself and see what conclusions you draw in a story that all begins with a knock on the door it was a quiet Sunday in early December in the gracious Ottawa neighborhood of rock cliff and at the home of John and Gloria calmly with their son and daughter away at college it seemed destined to be a lazy day we'd have been out late and we got up for early that morning and we were kind of tired so we were having a little snooze in the afternoon that's when it came the knock at the door that every parent contemplates but that few can comprehend when it happens to them and the police officer said can we come in and I said to what what do you want and he said I'm sorry to tell you this but your son's dead 22 year-old John Connolly was a third-year student at the University of Toronto and along with his older sister Sarah the light of his parents lives and you know the the flash that hits you is heart-stopping that's the only way I can put it it's absolutely heart-stopping and I said to mom what happened he said we can't tell you that he said you have to call this number in Toronto was Detective Fargas number at the other end of the line was a Toronto detective who said John had been found in the parking lot of his downtown apartment building it couldn't get worse but it did when the detective told them how their son had died he said he committed suicide and we have everything we need he says the case is closed and that was it the story was unbelievable impossible but within minutes of learning John was dead the Connolly's were also told the investigation was all wrapped up officially it was suicide you don't have to come to Toronto he says I'm just putting the finishing touches on this investigation and he said then I'm going on holidays for three weeks but Connelly family immediately set out for Toronto the drive a blur of shock grief and unanswered questions the way my father phrased it is that they thought that John had jumped and I said god no like it's just that's not possible that's not the way that's just not possible that's not John by the time they arrived in Toronto the Connolly's were utterly convinced the police had somehow got it terribly wrong but you must also be thinking could he have killed himself no absolutely no question in your mind whatsoever that couldn't have happened absolutely not John was absolutely rock-solid as an individual at the police station the detective had spoken to it long since left at first his replacement refused them access to John's body and we said well we're not even sure it's John so then they relented and we drove her to the morgue and that's when he identified John unfortunately they now knew that John was dead but it was at the morgue that his parents say they found the first tangible sign the investigation had not been as thorough as the Toronto Police let on though John was found on his back the Connolly's discovered prominent bruises on the front of his head bruises they were sure could not have been caused if the back of his head hit the pavement these were blunt blunt force trauma bruises it radiated around John's head before you dismiss that as a wild guess by grieving parents you should know that both of the Connolly's have practical medical experience John from his years of training as a dentist Gloria from her career as an emergency room nurse the morgue attendant was told directly do you see those injuries there we want those examined at the autopsy in light of all the other injuries now at that point did you expect that there would be a full and complete autopsy of your son's body that's the laws in Ontario so there was no doubt in your mind that they were going to do a full that's the law I met every criteria for a full forensic autopsy which are sudden and I expected death suspicious circumstances John's death might have been sudden and unexpected but to the Toronto Police apparently it wasn't suspicious they ruled it suicide and here's how they said it happened early that Sunday morning one of John's neighbors reported noises coming from his apartment the Connelly said the police told them she heard voices and the door repeatedly opening and closing inside police say John dressed in a leather jacket a toque and gloves and after leaving a suicide note made his way to the tenth floor where he pried open the hatch to the roof went to the edge and jumped when the neighbor heard a loud thud outside and saw a body in the parking lot she dialed 9-1-1 and from the start police and fire personnel were told to expect suicide the first officer on the scene found John lying on his back a second policeman entered his apartment and discovered what he took to be a suicide note when paramedics arrived John Connelly was taken to Saint Michael's Hospital and pronounced dead at five minutes past eight a detective then made a phone call to the young woman who'd been John's fiancee she told him John was under stress because of problems with exams his family and their relationship to the police it was an open-and-shut case a suicide five hours later there was that terrible knock at the Connolly's door in Ottawa the problem the Connelly family says is that they don't believe that's what happened to John at all impossible it's a fabrication it's been fabricated to fit what the Toronto Police Services wanted to create now you know better than I do that the authorities say to that kind of certainty that that's the way close-knit friends and family always respond John was solidly placed in his class in the top half of his class John was John had a balanced lifestyle he was level-headed he was calm was he on drugs no the toxicology is negative do you have any underlying problems no nothing nothing has ever surfaced in four years of investigation nothing not her book my book on Scotland let's find out where your mother is where's your mother more there he is get out behind the coach she was up at 5 o'clock to beat five o'clock on Christmas morning 5 o'clock to understand why the Connolly family is so adamant the Toronto police got it so wrong you first have to understand exactly who young John Connolly was what are we going back at born to professional parents take a bow thank you no and a doting older sister John seemed to have all the right stuff for success in life he was close to his family September the 8th a conscientious student to birds an enthusiastic athlete and from a young age his parents say he was always able to keep things in perspective and with his friends John Connelly was a magnet drawing others to him always ready to talk and laugh it was impossible to dislike John Connolly John and Nana Corina cofee were classmates in high school and friends ever since oh he was a likable person I mean everybody in our class just I mean he he's just such a cheery person nothing really sort of got him down even as they all went off to university John kept in touch sharing the highs and lows of his life and helping others cope with theirs but he truly was unbelievable a special one-of-a-kind he was just great long time pal Amy Bryden and those closest to him say John couldn't have hidden something so dark that it would drive him to kill himself and leave them agonizing over why like that's crazy late and what doesn't say that to me why would you reject that out of hand it was almost like an insult um I just from what I know of John and his character and his love of life and his closest with his friends his closest with his family there's no way he would make a decision to put his family through what they're going through now he he was just not that selfish one of my favorite lines from John what he said before going out one night says you know what I love going out so much I said no why it's just it's the people I get listened to people I get it talked to people isn't it great I thought gee that's that's pretty something but what about that scenario the Toronto detective described of the Connolly's the suicide note the stresses that made John so desperate he'd decided to end his life the signs he'd pried open the hatch to the roof of his apartment building then jumped surely there was evidence some forensic proof that all that really happened or was there and if not why were the police so certain John Connelly committed suicide before that boy arrived at the hospital it was already determined to be a suicide with a confirming note and a motive before he even got to the hospital the week after he died John Connolly was buried in his hometown of Ottawa his memory a constant presence for his family ever since well I wake up in the morning John's with me John's with me every moment of my day he's with me till I go to bed at night John's father says he rarely visits the cemetery it's too much of a reminder of what they've all lost I don't think about John's death the only reason I think about John's death is for the purpose of this investigation that's it okay thank you for your assistance it didn't take the Connolly's long to understand that if they were going to challenge the official story they must do the investigation that in their haste the police didn't do that's his final letter you don't have something called sudden suicide simple syndrome where it you know you go to bed one night and you're perfectly okay and you just wake up in the next morning and you just everything changes in your world that doesn't happen that that's not in the textbooks suicide is the second highest cause of death for young males but the Connolly's refused to accept their son took his own life for no apparent reason that's exactly what a lot of people here are saying to you that's what's the let me put it this way to you they don't make movies about it they don't write books about that it's not in the literature it doesn't exist to prove the police suicide Theory wrong the Connolly's would have to show that John's injuries could have been caused by someone else and they knew the results of the autopsy would be crucial the prominent bruises on John's forehead that they had seen at the morgue were compelling evidence the family believed that John could have been beaten before he fell and they hope that would be enough to convince the police to reopen the case these are not the only folks I've ever spoken to who've had a child died in circumstances it was officially ruled a suicide that they people had a real problem with that determination Scott Newark was special counsel for Ontario crime victims when the Connolly's invited him to hear about their case he expected to find parents in deep denial that is literally what I thought I was going to have that discussion with him that Saturday morning in their kitchen New York says what he did fine it was a family in search of the truth there's a particular kind of a courage that they have they don't not only do they want to get answers but they don't want anybody else to have to go through this and the Connolly's questions began with that very first phone call when the detective told them that John was dead you said your son's found flat on his back wearing a - gloves watch jacket zipped to his throat it may seem innocuous but to the Connolly's it sounded an alarm they say John didn't own gloves he was found in a pair left behind by his father he hated tooks and he refused to zip up any jacket his friends agree anybody who knows John pretty well that was that he never took something jacket all the way I especially know that because I used to joke around with them and say where's your scarf you know why zip up your jacket and used to like say to me oh you sound like my mother so no matter what the weather no matter what the weather mention of that toque was even more confusing his family says John never wore one the only one he owned wasn't used as a hat at all but to cover a golf club women so this was in fact the head cover to his driver that's right down can you imagine any circumstance under which your brother would have gone into the closet taken the head cover from his driver put it on his head and then jumped off the roof no no the Connolly's insist the only possible explanation for how John was dressed when he died is that someone else dressed him but the Toronto police never even contemplated that because as soon as they arrived they decided it was a suicide and interpreted everything else to support that what is the protocol when police officers arrived at the scene of a sudden unexplained death what are they supposed to do you know I could probably answer that best in saying what they're not supposed to do which is in their own police training manuals which is don't reits a conclusion too quickly their own training materials say don't do that because it can take investigation sideways and it can end up causing evidence to be ignored not fully appreciated miss analyzed Scot Newark should know he spent more than a decade as a crown attorney then ran the Canadian Police Association the only non cop to do it before that boy arrived at the hospital it was already determined to be a suicide with a confirming note and a motive before he even got to the hospital the Connolly's paid special attention to that so-called suicide note definitely that was not a suicide note had nothing to do with suicide John's father maintains the police misconstrued what was in fact two unrelated messages jotted down by his son likely at two different times John had been trained since the time he was small if you're going to write someone a card you're right a rough copy you may call your change is on that rough copy and then you transcribe that to the card to an untrained eye this does not read like a heartfelt goodbye to loved ones from someone so desperate he was about to kill himself in flowing script the first part of the note says best of luck in the future it's not signed just initialed when I got to that suicide note that I sort of looked at him oh wait a minute this doesn't make any sense it just didn't at all seem like anybody was addressing somebody else relative to what was they were about to do which was to commit suicide like the Connolly's former prosecutor Scott Newark thought the second part of that note didn't ring true either written farther down the page it says to my family my love will always be with you the word too seemed out of place the words didn't seem to make any sense it looked to me like some kind of a greeting that just you're stuck on the end of something and then insert it at the front and I must admit even at that Saturday morning I looked at it and thought you know the appellation to that was stuck in front there didn't look like was the same writing to me but it wasn't just the note when the Connolly's visited john's apartment after his death they thought it would be preserved as a crime scene they would soon learn not all police work is like the TV show CSI when they found the cigarette butts left behind by the detective they were cigarette butts in John's kitchen sink cigarette butts in the toilet and there was cigarette ashes all over the place and when I initially saw them I thought oh we just whoever was in here smoked and I realized that they were detective Fergus and the problem was not only did he leave the cigarette butts but they had disturbed the apartment sufficiently that you couldn't now bring in forensic investigation services but John's parents found a number of things that the police had clearly overlooked for example one of their sons most prized possessions a medal given to him by his grandfather was hanging by the door they say John almost never went anywhere without it John's bet had been made they say he never made it and John's desk had been tidied completely cleared of books that's unusual I've seen John studying I know it is I know what his study table would look like you start putting all of this together it's very and yet it's very very difficult to say oh no that's not suspicious it appears that there what really wasn't much of a forensic investigation that's not illogical in the context the 20 minutes in the on scene investigator had determined that this was a suicide there was no need for a forensic examination of the apartment when you've reached those conclusions and the Connolly's discovered something else blood on John's pillowcase stains missed by 20-year veteran Scott foggy who was the nighttime duty detective not a homicide investigator he said to me if I'd seen that on the 9th of December when your son was killed he said I would have thought it was just a shaving Nick and it was his rush that went over me and I realized he never saw John solely because John had not shaved the entire weekend so John was studying for his exams the revelation that the man in charge of investigating their son's death may never have seen his body called into question everything he told them about the case and it explained why the detective never noticed the injuries on John's forehead as his father says he was told and not only had detective Farr guy apparently never laid eyes on John after his death the Connelly say he didn't appear much interested in learning about John's life nothing we were asked nothing nothing foggy asked for names of close friends who really know John know we were the ones that were suggesting to him we said you know have you have you spoken to this person or are you going to fingerprint this or when's the autopsy going to be done when it's a tox screen going to be done we were the ones that were asking all the questions we weren't getting anything at that point but he didn't ask these questions no he didn't ask any of those questions to us no the decision had already been made at that point indeed within just a few hours the detective felt he knew enough about John Connelly to declare he'd committed suicide and closed the case now more than ever the Connelly say they realized the importance of the autopsy but for weeks they waited and still no results finally they discovered there were no results because there'd been no autopsy just a cursory external examination of John's body and there were no photographs of individual injuries like the bruises on his forehead it wasn't until about a month and a half later that we had found out that you know the external autopsy had been performed and not a full autopsy have been performed so John had been buried by that point time and buried and all the evidence with it the Connolly's were told that under Ontario law a full autopsy was necessary only for sudden unexplained deaths and remember officially John's death had been explained the police said it was suicide the external examination did note John's injuries dislocations fractures and internal lacerations consistent with his fall an abrasion was found on the front of his head but there was no mention of the bruises or anything else the question of course is if not suicide what there were only three options that I can think of accidentally falling off the roof jumping off the roof or being pushed or thrown off the roof I'm unaware of any other physical alternatives to those three and given your experience as a crown prosecutor do you see enough areas that are undetermined here to continue an investigation as to whether this might have been a homicide why I recommended that there be a reinvestigation of it on the material that the Connolly's presented on all of the official reports that came back there certainly appeared to me to be enough glaring questions here that cried out for some answers on a gray day in Ottawa five months after he was buried John Connolly's casket was raised from the grave to be transported to Toronto for the full autopsy that should have been done long before if the Toronto Police Service a senior personnel think that a case that was closed on the day my son died with that up not top see without toxicology without forensic examination of blood-stained pillow without a handwriting analysis without any fingerprinting and without meeting anyone from the immediate family and if they think that's the standard of care that's the quality of police investigation in Toronto then you've got the wrong personnel in place the dis internment was a somber occasion but also a major advance for the Connolly's whether or not they could ever solve the mystery of John's death they were determined to overturn the official story they'd finally forced the coroner's office to do the autopsy they believe the law required in the first place and this time these autopsy photographs clearly revealed even five months after John's death the prominent bruises his parents had seen but the authorities somehow overlooked and the autopsy found something else the police and coroner had missed hidden by John's hairline this cut which liked the bruises the Connolly's insist could not have been caused by a fall onto John's back and which bolstered the evidence their son might have been beaten beforehand we're prepared as two parents to put this information squarely in front of the public worldwide and say this is the information we have and will stand behind it there's a particular kind of a courage that they have they don't not only do they want to get answers but they don't want anybody else to have to go through this scott newark one of Canada's foremost victims advocates says their sheer force of will and medical backgrounds make the family formidable foes for a justice system that would prefer they simply go away these people however are incredibly well organized incredibly focused and they don't get blown off very easily and that is one thing if anybody thinks they're gonna blow off John and Gloria Connelly they're in for a surprise for example when the Connolly's felt the police analysis of the so-called suicide note was inadequate the family hired an expert reputed to be one of Canada's best who determined the questionable word to seemed not to match anything in thousands of pages of their son's handwriting that potentially means that that was forged that's significant for anybody involved in attempting to determine death when they place as much reliance as they did on it by literally using it to close the case and if that was the case that they relied on that being a suicide note and it wasn't then all of the other evidence that was there should have been taken into into account an entirely different way and the Connolly's kept so much pressure on the Toronto Police in the Ontario coroner that the coroner's office eventually commissioned what it called the equivocal death analysis released more than two years later it was the official justification for why the death of 22 year old John Connolly was declared a suicide and despite all the issues raised by his parents it once again rejected or ignored each and every one but piecing together what it did say here's how the police and coroner claimed John Connolly spent the final hour of his life according to the official story John was up by 7 that Sunday morning his family says he'd studied late and never awoke before his alarm which was set for 9:30 the police say he made his bed which his parents maintain he never did the police say his desk was tidy which his family insists it never was especially during exams the police say he put on a leather jacket zipped to the neck and his father's gloves the kind of warm clothing John never wore the Connolly's say more curiously yet at some point according to the police John went to his golf bag took the head cover off his driver and pulled it down over his forehead then after talking loudly to himself remember a neighbor reportedly heard voices after going in and out of his apartment the neighbor described the door repeatedly opening and closing and after scrawling that strange suicide note the police say John left his apartment for the last time he left behind his keys the official story goes because he knew he was never coming back according to the police John took the elevator to the 10th floor where though there was a door to the rooftop he chose instead to climb up to the hatch leading to the roof because it was pad locked in place the police say he used a prying tool like a crowbar to force it open the official version says he pulled himself through the hatch sat at the edge of the roof worrying about exams his family and his fiance before deciding things were so bad he had to end his life and then he jumped but that official story contains inaccuracies factual errors and unanswered questions take the implication that John left his keys in his apartment because he knew he was going to kill himself you only had to read police records as the Connolly's did to learn that John was found with his keys in his pocket the keys left in the apartment belonged to the superintendent who'd left the police in then there's the statement that John pried open the hatch to the roof with a prying tool like a crowbar but no such tool was ever found and there's a more basic issue John Connally was a third year pharmacy student his parents say if he wanted a way to kill himself he knew all about making lethal compounds from what he could buy at the local drugstore finally there's that cut and the bruises on his forehead the death analysis claims they're consistent with John's head hitting the parking lot but there's no explanation as to how that could possibly be if John landed on his back and if his forehead hit first why was there no dirt or grit from the pavement embedded in his injuries or on his - but for all its flaws what most troubles the Connolly's about the official story is how it depicts John as a person and his relationship with them the death analysis suggests John and Gloria are trying to blame someone else for their son's suicide because they see it as their failure as parents so you'd think that the author of the report would have talked to the Congress about John and their relationship right actually that's wrong so he never has met you never spoke to you never interviewed you for the purpose of this on the telephone or otherwise actually he's refused to muse we've tried to contact him yet well there's a little blurb at the bottom that says it you know if you'd like to talk to me about this you can give me a call but he wouldn't return our calls contacting detective Frankie so consider some of the statements that death analysis makes to describe young John Connelly - it says John didn't get along with his parents and was disappointing to them because he couldn't do as well as his sister birds it says he struggled with recent exams he was a person who keeps things bottled up inside he was stressed about school and his future add it all up the police and coroner say and it explains why John Connelly chose to die does any of that strike you as being the man Union not at all not a single thing that you just said makes me think for John at all it almost upsets me that they would even say that John's friend Amy bride he was just not that selfish and I can't think of one thing that would make him be in a mindset that he would decide to take his own life in fact John's most recent recorded grades earned him second class honours 1a for B's and a C+ marks very similar to his sister's John is described here as a person who kept things bottled up inside himself a person stressed about school and his future a person who didn't get along with his parents I don't know where they got that information from her who did that report but he was especially the point we said didn't get along with parents like right there that tells me that's complete Bob John can beat us had known John Connolly since 9th grade if they're so depressed and why was he studying so how so why was he working hard why was the talking about the future why was he always happy I mean these things don't know doesn't doesn't equate all those statements are completely untrue and I mean whoever [Music] whoever made those statements or wherever they got them from doesn't know John definitely in fact none of John Connolly's closest friends and family was ever interviewed by the author of that report instead the psychological profile used to justify the official story of suicide and each of those statements that John's friends categorically deny came from a single source John's former fiancee Lisa tonello they'd met on campus a couple of years earlier and became engaged though friends and family eventually noticed problems so there was a tension there there was tension now this was much later on in the relationship but there was also a difference when it came to future John wanted to go on with school Lisa didn't John wanted to travel Lisa didn't know prior to the engagement she'd say I'd love to travel and after the engagement she'd say things like I love to travel but it's not for me months before he died John confided that he decided to call off the engagement I asked him about Lisa I said oh you know how are things with Lisa and he said to me well you know it's just not you know working out and in my head it's like basically over and he was going to wait for exams to be over and then break it off in fact remember that note the police thought proved suicide best of luck in the future the Connolly's believe it was really John practicing his farewell to Lisa he'd already made up his back he'd already made up its mind definitely what's more friends and families say privately John had already moved on it had another relationship perhaps maybe Lisa didn't know that he was dating somebody else but Lisa sure note probably knew that the engagement was either called off or being stalled or something like that but the police and coroner never heard that side of the story or totally ignored it relying instead on the woman John Connolly no longer wanted to marry who told them how distraught he was the point of it is this is something it like in my business we call this a clue this is something that the police should be going and clearing up according to Scott Newark if John's death had not so quickly been declared a suicide the police should have made that fundamental difference between witnesses a focus of any investigation there's this sort of contradiction that's there and if it turns out that that contradiction is real okay that she gave false information to the police trust me people give false information and circumstances surrounding a homicide that's important John and Gloria Connolly passionately believe that their son did not kill himself they have theories about what did happen about who might have wanted John dead though none that can be proved right now but they are also absolutely sure that they could know exactly how their son died if only the Toronto Police had bothered to do a proper investigation four years ago and incredibly they say they have reason to believe something else that if the police and fire personnel who arrived first on the scene had done their jobs properly John Connolly himself might be here to solve the mystery for us among the records obtained by the Connolly's is the paramedic incident report from December 9th 2001 it shows the first police officer arrived almost immediately after the call to 911 in the fire department shortly after that paramedics got there 13 minutes after the 911 these records indicate were told that John was VSA meaning vital signs absent in other words the police and firemen thought he was dead the first rule of emergency work is assist the victim but there is no indication here that the police or firemen did anything to save John Connolly's life or even to assess if he was breathing and his heart was beating the report also shows that when the paramedics did arrive 13 minutes later they discovered that John was indeed alive and they took transfer of John with vital signs absent that means in that first period of time someone had assessed John to be dead when he was in fact alive you would acknowledge that given the severity of his injuries even if they had tried every measure at the time on the spot he might not have survived on the contrary when the paramedic came on the scene Shawn had her heart rate and normal sinus rhythm from our information is quite possible that John bled to death from lack of emergency response John Connolly lost vital signs in the ambulance about 10 minutes later and was pronounced dead at the hospital on the trail that the con was presented on all of the official reports that came back there certainly appeared to me to be enough glaring questions here that cried out for some answers Scot Newark as special counsel for Ontario crime victims argued the Connolly case should be reopened but the Ontario coroner has refused to order that and the Toronto Police Service insists it is satisfied with its investigation it's an old and trite saying but it is actually quite true that justice is not only done but it's seemed to be done as well and in this instance I think what that means has answered some questions from people how would you characterize the quality of the investigation you've seen here give me an adjective not good enough I'm afraid it's not an adjective but people deserve better than this so more than four years after 22-year old John Connelly was killed his sudden death is still unexplained and for all their efforts hair that they're analyzing the Connolly's remain a family in limbo message anybody who would seem best of luck in the future and think that that's a suicide message would have to be dreaming caught somewhere between the official story and the truth why was it so intolerable to them and between their two lives the one with John and the one without him so he taught me do you ever think you know in in moments of absolute reflection maybe I'm missing something here maybe I have got this wrong maybe something happened that I just couldn't comprehend you know what I'm prepared to handle them I prepared to handle that and if we found out something that was negative you know what we'd handle that but in four years of scraping and scrounging Toronto Police Services and the eteri coroner's office have found nothing they've had to fabricate the information they've had the falsified who we are as a family and how we get along our family stuck together like glue we're not going anywhere [Music]

Channel: The Fifth Estate

Views: 2,367,953

Rating: 4.5459504 out of 5

Keywords: John Connelly, Bob McKeown, student, death, police, investigation, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, The Fifth Estate, Fifth Flashback, CBC, CBC News

Id: vk6zUNhB2eY

Length: 41min 44sec (2504 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 31 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/DeluxeHost]

Interesting! Maybe his ex-Fiancee was so mad she hired somebody to do it?