Shadows of doubt: The unsolved disappearance and death of Joe Grozelle (2008) - The Fifth Estate

[Music] the Fifth Estate imagine the worst it is autumn a son or daughter goes away to school as they have always done but this time it's forever if you see anything don't be shy I find the shirt and find their shoe if I just thought you know what that's what we're here for try to keep the line as straight as possible this is the story of a son who disappeared a family tragedy that has been compounded by a mystery his name Joe grisel a fit 21 year old a varsity athlete a good student popular there's no reason for us to believe one way or another about foul play so you always look to the positive and that day he's out there his sudden disappearance made no sense to anyone who knew him his mother Minnie grows L please everybody in Kingston look around it could be some clue or something somebody's seen him I think what if something happened and he's waiting for us to find him that's that hurts I think I don't want to be too late if it's something like that Joe was the fourth of five children in the family of Minnie and Ron Roselle they have been a close untroubled family until today that's what he's thinking because he's such a good guy maybe sometimes you hide your feelings I go to my moments where you know yeah yeah yeah you think positive and then you think the other way all we can do is stick possible the disappearance of Joe grisel in October 2003 was troubling for many reasons not the least of which was where it happened when he disappeared Joe grisel was a third-year officer cadet at the Royal Military College in Kingston Ontario one of Canada's most revered public institutions RMC is a guardian of military tradition a crucible for future military leadership any hint of scandal here would have deep political resonance the task of finding job Roselle was critical and it fell to a military investigative unit that is rapidly becoming more renowned for damage control than for the quality of its police work [Music] the history of our MC is embedded in the history of Canada the military college first opened its doors in 1876 [Music] it was modeled on the US Military Academy at West Point [Music] it's motto true duty valor signals high expectations for anyone who comes here Lieutenant Colonel rod McDonald who led the initial search for Joe Rozelle is now the Registrar at RMC it's a huge adjustment for most people to come out of home life possibly leaving home for the first time make the transition from adolescence to adult from the me first type of attitude to a teamwork attitude [Applause] teamwork from day one it's all about the group dynamic the essence of military discipline the early weeks are more like boot camp than a university a test of toughness determination the regimental spirit congratulations mixer welcome to other group they arrived boisterously adolescent but they will grow up here and in four years time leave as educated and bilingual leaders from our MC many will go on to fill the highest ranks of Canada's military establishment it is therefore no accident that our characteristics the characteristics of men and women in uniform like you our values mark and define our Canada few who knew Joe Rozelle growing up would have predicted a military future he seemed too laid-back a skinny high school jock with a sentimental streak I'd like to share with everyone a revelation I've had that people are just all-around mean to each other because I've noticed people act differently around different people with different color hair or different sexes or even a race I don't really understand this because I know it's just the same we're all human beings and we should really get along together [Music] Joe just seemed too gentle for the soldier's life but there was another side to him he was a born team player a fierce competitor his passion was basketball growing up in rural southwestern Ontario he spent years becoming good at it his older brother Jim was a star basketball player at the University of Western Ontario Joe aspired to follow in his brother's footsteps in 2001 he caught the eye of Craig Norman then head coach of the basketball team at our MC what kind of an impression did he make when when you saw him on the court the first time he was small you know I knew he'd be challenged physically at that level but he was a competitor and and and he certainly had a high basketball IQ and and I felt we could we could certainly work with him and make him into a player at that level [Music] our MC is a demanding place a university but it's also a nine-year commitment a four-year degree program followed by five years mandatory military service Joe was taken on a challenge that left his parents wondering if he really understood what he was getting into well at first I was quite Joey sure you want to do this I wasn't totally like all excited about it but I thought I hope you check it all I wouldn't see if this is what you want to do and I think it's the basketball that was a big factor in deciding to go in the summer of 2001 Joe left home for the first time for basic military training in San John Quebec he settled in adapted to the military life while adjusting to a heavy academic workload his friend Kevin delude he was very productive he was into the school more than others on the team as well I mean he was looking forward to getting bars like senior appointments within the school basketball remained his first love but he wasn't very big for varsity he spent a lot of game time on the bench it was never any guarantee he'd make the team but what he lacked in body mass he easily made up in brains and character coach Craig Norman he did his work you know he got bigger physically put on 10 to 15 pounds you know more mature understood what he had to do and and he answered to challenge as far as I was concerned and he made the team he made the team in the calculus of hindsight a more negative assessment of Joe Brazil's basketball abilities would take on surprising significance and become for some a decisive factor in his fate but by all informed accounts Joe had no illusions about basketball he knew that he was too small to stir but he also knew that he was smart enough to lead and more important his teammates and his coaches knew it in fact for everyone who knew Joe Groza LS he started his third year at RMC he was an academic standout a solid athlete and he had all the qualities of a first-rate military officer he was for for the most part what we would consider the arm C poster child and that he was he was young he was athletic he was successful in and certainly if we were going to go out to a university fair to a guidance counselor show or to a high school he's exactly the kind of individual that we would want to represent Reunion Weekend 2003 Joe's parents were visiting he proudly showed his mom and dad around the campus with special attention to the rigors of the new cadets that year and I remember walking around a number of different events with Joe Joe was beside me the whole time and he was you know he was talking and describing things yelling at some of the students at his buddies and so on and seemed to be having a great time it was it was a good day it would be their last good day together in the last week of October 2003 Ron and Minnie gazelle would get the call that every parent dreads it was about Joe and the beginning of an ordeal that would change their lives completely and I called Ron and he called I'm seeing he came home and that's I just thought he's just can't be just not there [Music] [Music] October 21st 2003 an unremarkable day at our MC except in retrospect joke Rozelle normally conscientious skipped two classes that morning but he showed up at lunchtime spoke to several cadets in the mess hall that afternoon he attended class as usual then a regular to our basketball practice that evening he had dinner with his teammates by all later accounts Joe Rozelle seemed normal in every way Joe had a girlfriend Melissa Haggart a classmate who was also a varsity athlete she would later report that she and Joe went to his room at about 11:00 that night at about 1:00 a.m. she saw Joe at his desk working on a paper that was due the next day then she fell asleep she would never see job Roselle again what happened next in the early morning hours of October 22nd 2003 remains a dark and disturbing mystery five years later job Roselle had simply vanished investigators would later find his wristwatch wallet and cell phone where he'd left them on the desk his uniforms were hanging neatly in his closet there was not a single clue as to where he might have gone or hi when he failed to turn up for breakfast then for the second day in a row missed his morning classes his friends began to worry Kevin delude when we went to his room and found that his uniform was there his clothes was on the floor his wallet keys or all his personal belongings were there I think that's when we kind of were like hmm that's weird and then speaking with Melissa and how she said that he she'd woken up or whatever and he wasn't there then we said okay let's let's try and figure out where where he is and what you know where he where is he so that's when I think the it was alarming and we kind of were a little confused Galoob called coach Craig Norman Joe's absence was completely out of character it could have repercussions for the team something Joe would never willingly allow the coach didn't seem concerned at first but he was curious so I called the family and said what's you know is is Joe like back home for some reason it's something up no no Craig everything's you know I'm sure he'll show up but then he didn't come to practice that day and you know that was the first practice he had missed he'd been there for two years and six weeks I guess and that was the first practice he ever missed so it was alarming it by late afternoon when nobody had set eyes on him for nearly 18 hours his girlfriend Melissa notified their squadron commander that night she briefed the military police Thursday morning coach Norman called Joe's parents again and he said I have to tell you he missed the whole day classes and really and over who can't find Joe then I've got I knew I knew there was something wrong then there was something ominous about Joe's disappearance and coach Norman would soon find out just how sensitive the situation was I got called into my boss's office and told director cadets is doesn't want you know have contact with the family anymore and any reason why for me that was a shock because I felt I had a responsibility to the to the family to the kid because I had recruited him and I felt he wouldn't have been an arm see without us recruiting him there and and I knew the family I would see them whenever they came down and you know III don't know what their reasoning was but you know obviously they were they were trying to keep the kibosh on something but III wasn't sure of what it was I was just interested in trying to find out where Joe was and what was happening with them the disappearance of Joe Broz l had all the makings of a crisis for the military brass and it became apparent when seven members of the Armed Forces national investigation service the NIS arrived in Kingston to take over the hunt for the missing cadet it's the job of the NIS to investigate serious crimes involving military personnel but also implicit in their mandate is the management of optics controlling public fallout when military people get in trouble Friday October 24th RMC officials sent a significant incident report to defense headquarters in Ottawa it was a heads-up the absence of this particular cadet appears out of character while I was as yet no media attention it should be regarded as sensitive foul play was a possibility cadets were combing the 142 waker campus they circulated flyers in the city with photographs of joe grisel October became November the search spread to the waters of Kingston Harbour [Applause] cadets and staff at our MC and Kingston say they're struggling to maintain the Joker's owl will be found alive fifteen days into the search radio reports were sounding grim it's an ominous sight of hundreds of cadets who either no job result or no of him Monteria provincial police divers were now probing the murky bottom of the cataracs River which empties near the college the waters are relatively shallow if he was here they were confident of finding him over the years we averaged about a 96 to 98 percent recovery rate in our investigations I can't say for sure we're gonna find anybody we don't even know for sure he's in the water the divers spent days searching even used sonar to try to find him but there was no trace of the missing cadet approaching mid-november they were running out of options and running out of hope then it was the morning of November 13th after 22 days of searching and RMC employee walking across a small causeway to the campus noticed something floating near the shore [Music] the search was over mr. grizzle is some his deal with dealing with it here locally as best he can talking with his family now some of the family will be joining him a little bit later on but one can only try and imagine what they're going through Ron Rozelle was summoned to the Kingston General Hospital morgue we would in Joe was laying on a on a table blanket over him and I'd looked at him and I had no difficulty whatsoever telling so yep that's Joe there's no question in my mind that was Joe [Music] jover ozell would get a military funeral in Chatham Ontario for Melissa Haggard who had last seen Joe hunched over a school assignment exactly one month earlier it was a moment of incomprehension [Music] [Applause] [Music] the ancient rituals marked a kind of closure for the military but for the gross sales family it was anything but closure a healthy 21 year old was in his grave and nobody seemed able or willing to tell them why we took Joe home and we had no idea why we were taking this guy home why is he coming home in a box [Music] by early 2004 life returned to normal at the military college the precise routines of military life obliged cadets to focus on the moment and the future joke Roselle was history near where Joe's body had been discovered in November a small memorial a mute reminder of the drama that unfolded here just months before but away from here where he grew up perplexing questions and once the funeral was completed and all of that aspect of it was done then I started thinking about back to the investigation back to what happened back to what was done and then started getting right back into ok so what happened here how come my son's not of life why isn't he in life spring 2004 six months gone since Joe's death his father had a lot of questions why did it take three weeks to find him if he was in the water all that time how come there was no water in his lungs why was his body half-naked somehow a hooded pullover and two other shirts came off why not his shoes in the months that followed Ron Roselle began to suspect that the image of the institution had priority over the investigation of Joe's death he wanted to know what really happened regardless of potential fallout back in November he'd been encouraged by public statements from the military investigation by its leader Navy lieutenant Ryan snow you said you're not ruling anything in not ruling anything out so is foul play still a possibility well it's it's only prudent of us to ensure that we leave no one's no stone unturned here while we're conducting this investigation obviously there's going to be a lot of information that will be gleaned from the further medical examination of the body but what Ron Rozelle didn't know that day was that the NIS had been winding down its investigation preparing to return to headquarters in Ottawa even before Joe's body was recovered after the body was recovered they didn't leave town now that goes contrary to all logic in my view in terms of you know if you're looking for a missing person that's one thing but once you have a body that's another and you should be escalating not not reducing in my view and there was something else he didn't know about the NIS investigation even before Jo's body surfaced they'd pretty well made up their minds about what happened to him we will obviously be doing a lot of liaison with the coroner in regards to the direction that this investigation will take at this time end liaison November 14th according to his field notes lieutenants no informed the Ontario coroner's office that as far as the NIS were concerned Joe killed himself suicide according to the notes was a high degree of probability foul play was ruled out that hasty judgment would in hindsight block a wider five-year search for answers to a simple question what killed Joe Rozelle it would take the Ontario coroner seven months to produce a report on Joe Brazil's death and it couldn't have been less informative there was no trace of drugs or alcohol in the body no mention of suicide the stunning revelation for the family was that the autopsy had revealed no specific cause of death nothing he was dead period but they couldn't specify when where or how he died they couldn't even say for sure that he had drowned in seven months the best they could come up with was no specific cause of death identified [Music] in the absence of certainty about the cause of death that awful theory that he killed himself continued to hang like a cloud over the memory of Joe Rozelle a family that had been hoping that somehow solid information would mitigate their grief found themselves in limbo profoundly disappointed in the people they'd been counting on to figure out what happened we had the coroner's office we had Kingston police involved we had the national investigation service involved so we have all those agencies involved and none of these guys could come up with any answers for us the coroner's office should have been able to identify hi cause of death so how did the military investigators come to the conclusion that Joe's death was suicide nobody knows for sure but the NIS seemed to have based their theory on a list of 16 factors that persuaded them that Joe was in despair many of the items on the list were based on subjective comments that were in many cases taken at a context the military investigation seized on casual observations that Joe looked depressed or sad but he complained more than usual that he had made ambiguous comments about life's futility that he considered suicide once in high school speculation that was hard if not impossible to verify one possibly serious suggestion on the list Joe and Melissa Haggart were on the verge of breaking up a theory she has emphatically denied in the one public interview she's given and in formal statements she's given to investigators there were hints that coach Norman planned to cut him from the team which would have been a devastating prospect if it had been true you know this theory that he was going to get caught is it came from somewhere that I don't know it and we were already six weeks into our season so it there was just no substance to that rumor at all coach Norman recalls the NIS seemed fixated on suicide from the outset the NIS came in and an aide questioned you know all the members of the team they questioned me on a number of occasions and you know the line of questioning was such that it seemed that they were they were trying to focus in on the fact that maybe Joe took his own life you know just you know there was a lot of questions around where you gonna caught him I heard you were an economy wasn't playing a lot of minutes was it do you think it was hard on him with his brother being an all-canadian stuff like that and it just seemed to me like there was a certain amount of tunnel vision on their part as to as to the as to the way they were conducting their investigation for the people who knew him best speculation about suicide made no sense he coped as well as anyone with life at RMC dude you know it's busy it's hectic it's stressful but I don't recall him being any depressed or or sad or overwhelmed from what I remember he was in control of everything around him Lieutenant Colonel rod McDonald who led the search for Joe grisel before the NIS became involved was the only military official who would appear on camera when we raised the theory about suicide he seemed shocked to hear about it the NIS arrived at a conclusion that it was a suicide well it's Endon probable suicide foul play ruled out it's in the investigators notes what did you think of the that possibility that's why I questioned you right now because I've never seen that and I've never heard anybody specifically say that I can't necessarily accept it at first blush I might have been able to not knowing the individual and just with the superficial information that was available and the more that I became familiar with the family and what they had it struck me as less and less likely that he would be the kind of individual to do that sort of thing so if Joe Broz L didn't kill himself how did he end up in Kingston Harbour and how could he have been there and not be noticed by the divers who just a few days before his body was discovered had been searching that same area just a few feet from the campus young guy dies young guy found in the water put himself there what's wrong with that conclusion from your point of view well from my point of view having that situation doesn't fit with with the guy that I know the Joe that I know Joe would have done that Ferran Rozelle suicide was too convenient a tidy answer that closed a potentially awkward file but it didn't answer any of the most obvious questions I'd like someone to explain to me how come there was no body spotted or seen in that water or picked up by the sonar and by the divers and could somebody explain to me how a body shows up there when it wasn't there for days before anywhere in that Bay before paired questions that raised new doubts about that crucial first investigation of the death of Joe Rozelle and every time we started asking questions we weren't allowed to go there we were stopped [Music] [Applause] graduation day at the Royal Military College [Music] a passage never to be forgotten but this is more than just another academic milestone they are now military officers bonded in the service of their country and to each other but for Ron Roselle it is a day for bitter reflection the son who should have graduated in 2005 will be forever frozen in year three of his four-year program the passage of time has been unhelpful there are too many unanswered questions what really happened to his son Joe on a rainy night in October 2003 by early 2004 those who wanted answers included the Chief Coroner of Ontario he asked the Ontario provincial police to investigate Joe's death where have all of the avenues open to us we're not ruling any of them up the first autopsy report had been vague couldn't even say how he died it didn't help that military investigators after what the coroner called an unimpressive investigation had jumped to the dubious conclusion he'd killed himself Joe's body was exhumed deputy coroner Jim Cairns promised a more thorough probe this time round we're looking for marks and the body were looking for trace evidence that may have been may have not been noted the first time round the second autopsy would unlike the military investigation look for evidence of murder for the grisel family the new investigation was promising but they couldn't help wondering what went wrong the first time when they talked about doing a sec summation and doing a second autopsy red flag start going up saying wait a minute why are we doing this you don't do anything twice unless you didn't do it right the first time is usually the case so that started raising you know concerns all over the place about okay so what's going on here in the end the concerns were justified a far more thorough autopsy more than a year after Joe Broz l's death still couldn't determine what killed him the trail was cold and getting colder [Applause] in early 2005 the OPP thought they'd found a clue here a security camera near our MC revealed four figures walking away from the campus at 1:10 a.m. on the morning Joe disappeared then 40 minutes later caught them walking back they asked the public for help but it had been 16 months the lead went nowhere the OPP interviewed just about everyone who'd ever known Joe Broz ell they turned up tantalizing leagues that had been overlooked by the military investigators in 2003 one of the more intriguing a graduate of our MCU had maintained close ties with students throughout the years he sold financial services and cultivated a lot of business among Cadets as a former cadet he knew his way around and seemed to have unrestricted access to the dorms but when some cadets complained of sexual advances the administration tried to bar him from the campus leftenant Colonel Rod McDonald he'd visited the the dorms a few times and there was complaints I am aware of the fact that the the college responded to that individuals actions and asked him to cease and desist but it seems he didn't cease or desist and when the OPP found out he had a history of sexual escapades involving boys and young men they tracked him down and quizzed him aggressively on his whereabouts tonight Joe Broz ell disappeared but it was another lead that military investigators somehow overlooked in the fall of 2003 in 2005 it took the OPP detectives nowhere fall 2006 another ray of hope for the grisel family there was to be a coroner's inquest surely this would uncover something it's been a long time it's been a frustrating three years for us waiting and waiting and waiting just to get some kind of answers and hopefully we'll get something but the inquest quickly bogged down and came to a halt when Ron Rozelle tried to question the competence of the early military investigation by the NIS the inquest resumed six months later but the NIS investigation was still off-limits Ron Rozelle could barely suppress his anger we now have more questions than we have answers more questions than what we had prior to starting this inquest the inquests serves only the purpose of asking questions around the five the five questions that are required to be answered that is the who died when where Manor and cause of death we were focused and we were kept focused strictly on questions that had to do with the five questions but there's nothing there there's no answers there and the coroner's office knew this going into the inquest and every time we started asking questions about who was in charge what investigation was done well what was done when was it done we weren't allowed to go there we were stopped in short the failure by the military's national investigation service the NIS to come up with hard information in the early days of the investigation may well have doomed all subsequent attempts to find out what really happened to Joe there were three possible outcomes murder suicide and accidental death but the NIS settled quickly on the one that puts the onus of responsibility on the victim suicide and yet the evidence for that finding has been substantially discredited so it is fair to ask was that verdict just a convenient outcome for the military or was it compromised by a lack of competence the N is often referred to as an elite police force in the military is usually assigned to special jobs that the regular MPs can't handle there's nothing special in trauma training or determine additional qualification or II term even if experience retired colonel michele bravo is now an ottawa lawyer specializing in military issues and an observer of the NIS since it was formed in 1997 isn't it fair to ask shouldn't two people going into it be very special people and specially trained well I think a better question would be does the National Investigative Service is e or is it equipped in fact to conduct your sensitive investigation particularly when you're dealing with criminal crimes such as murder for instance or sexual assault or whatever so try and answer I mean do we really need it my short answer to that is no we have a cross-canada competent provincial and municipal police forces Lieutenant Colonel rod McDonald isn't convinced that any other agency could have done a better job in the case of Joe Broz l85 there's always an opportunity to look back hindsight is twenty-twenty to say that somebody else might have done it more effectively that will always be a question I suppose we're sitting here trying to solve a mystery without the benefit of any serious evidence what what happened to Joe goes well I want to in my own heart believe that an accident of some sort of curd I don't know as we move further and further away is there that one classic bit of information that's going to come forward at some point in time or and that will explain all of this in my own heart I don't believe that there is what took the life of Joe Rozelle and when and where and why Joe's family can't bring themselves to accept the hard reality that there might never be an answer to such fundamental questions which is why after five long years they struggle to keep Joe's memory alive hoping memory will motivate a continued search for truth about his death [Music] it is another autumn another crop of future officers start their 4-year program here for the grows elves it has become important to stay in touch with our MC they have unfinished business here and they don't want anybody to forget it I keep pushing because I wouldn't be able to live with myself down the road five years if I hadn't because I'll always be asking myself the question did I do everything possible to find out what happened to my son and every time I go to bed at night I have to think about that and I'm not gonna have to ask that question down the road because what I'm done I all have said yes I did everything I could I'm Linden MacIntyre thanks for watching we'll see you soon you can access the Fifth Estate website at cbc.ca slash v you can also get in touch with us to comment in the program or to make suggestions for future stories just go to the website again that's at cbc.ca slash v and click on the link that says contact us we read everything you write [Music] you

Channel: The Fifth Estate

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Length: 41min 33sec (2493 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 07 2020