Message from Terry Roth

Terry Roth is a person living in Quebec who has known the Allore family since when Theresa was still alive, and has been following her murder case ever since. He was kind enough to offer me feedback and corrections on my criticism of the Surete du Quebec.
Terry writes;

The SQ is to blame for a few things - but not everything. You have to understand that in 1979, there was no SQ - there was the provoncial police and local authorities involved. The locals were the ones investigating these cases (with the help of provincial coroner who did the autopsy and reported results.)
But there were 3 police "entities" involved - the local police (led by Leo Hamel), the provincial police (albeit distant) and a "detective" named Roch Gaudrault.
This is the crux of this case. Roch Gaudrault. (pronounced Rock Good-row) - this guy was a blithering fool who had no desire in solving murder cases as much as he wanted to just close files. At the time of the disapparance he deduced a drug-overdose theory - and went with that theory through the finding of the body 5 months later. The autopsy showed NO traces of any drugs in her body - which Roch explained that it was due to the body being in water and ice for 5 months. We bought that. What could we do. We were young and the police said thats the way it was.
I never believed that myself- Theresa did not do drugs...and why she would decide to take drugs (she was an honor role student who had early-semester good marks and no problems) want to OD and kill herself 3 miles from her dorm....well it was just a crazy reason.
A few years ago, John decided to look into this case further and found the following:
-There were TWO other girls whose bodies were found around the same time - similar origins, paths roads - in an area which is a quiet rural college town...they had like 1 murder every 20 years in that area - all of a sudden 3 at once. But why didn't we hear about it at the time? Because all 3 fell into different local jurisdictions (police forces) - there was no SQ to tie them together.
But there WAS a common denominator. Roch Gaudrault was the detective in all 3.
As a matter of fact, he was the main murder detective of the entire area. In his career - thats all he dealt with - 3 murders of young girls. How many did he solve? zero.
Now lets look a little closer at this guy...and his so-called "investigations" at the time.....yup you got it - all 3 cases were scant investigations ...poor evidence retrieval....poor interviewing...unexplainable lost time ...useless travelling to places which had nothing to do with the case, etc.
So lets go back and look at the evidence and re-examine it ....okay ? we have forensics today...DNA...etc. Oh my ...look what happened - all the evidence was destroyed 5 years after the crimes!!!
Hmm now why would the coroner destroy evidence of unsolved crimes? Maybe a lack of space? (You should see their building - no lack of space there!)
...but look...there was a signature to have the evidence destroyed...and it was by none other than ...Roch Gaudrault
Now I am not saying that Roch had anything direct to do with these crimes...but I do say that he is:
a) Too stupid to have carried out proper investigations or
b) he knew the killer and was covering up for him
Now it could be a) but also personally I think b)
We bring that to the SQ and they do not want to re-open this up UNLESS we have DIRECT evidence to support any of it AND the main reason? If we bring an ex-detective under investigation due to botched work or corruption....EVERY case that existed at the time that he investigated (break-ins, assaults, attacks, etc) or people who were sent to jail, would be coming out of the woodwork
See our point?
Terry Roth

After reading this, I conclude that I have chosen the wrong target of ridicule in my SQ / Frankensten story, and sent this reply to Terry;

Hey Terry - Thanks again!
This is a good history lesson for me. I should be blaming this Roch guy instead of the SQ. Perhaps he should be the Constable in my story. This is a very good account you have given me. I appreciate how well you have explained all the circumstances. Now I have an idea of the political situation. It is regrettable that the family and friends of Theresa have been the victims of such politics.
I could never get over the sheer stupidity it must take to not recognize a murder when it is obviously so. (Oh yeah, people who OD always do that. Take off their clothes and go crawling through the snow to die.) I sure had fun making fun of that!
I was so outraged when I read the part about John and Theresa's father being told to "Go home and forget about it." What a cruel thing to say to a man who just identified his daughter's remains. (Hey, I was pissed!) I had to work that quote into the story.
Thanks again, Terry. You have been very helpful to me. I owe you big time!

And so I stand corrected. My apologies to any good citizens of Quebec I may have offended by making fun of your police force. It looks like a case of one bad apple spoiling the whole bunch.