The case has gone cold since 16-year-old Karman Willis was shot and killed eight years ago while joyriding in the middle of the night on Wiebo Ludwig's farm in northwestern Alberta.
No charges have ever been laid. Now Ludwig and a retired RCMP officer are saying it's time for a public inquiry into the death near Hythe that has left scars of bitter resentment in the community dotted with gas rigs and mixed farms.
Ludwig asked for a public inquiry through his lawyer several years ago but got no response. He'd still like to see one, he said, "so that things could come to light as to what happened."
Ludwig is a controversial figure. In the 1990s, he spent time in jail for sabotaging gas wells that he blamed for miscarriages and other health problems in the animals and humans on his 185-hectare farm. The property is now home to 47 people, mostly extended family.
After his conviction, his Trickle Creek farm became a target for young people looking for adventure. It was 4 a.m. when two pickups fishtailed across the lawn of the farm on June 20, 1999. The young drivers revved their engines, headlights glaring, the teens inside laughing and yelling.
At one point, one truck came dangerously close to a tent full of Ludwig's children camping on the grass. Moments later a shot rang out.
The 30-calibre bullet tore through 19-year-old Shawn Westwater's arm before hitting Willis in the chest. She was pronounced dead on arrival a few minutes later at the local hospital.
"If somebody here shot, it was because they were afraid for their own lives," Ludwig said in a recent interview with the Canadian Press.
"These people were just about running down four of my girls in a tent. And I could very well imagine somebody wanting to keep that from happening.
"But I told them all to shut up about it, in case somebody did do it, don't talk about it," he said. "I felt that there would not be justice done if they did open up while the heat was so high."
RCMP delay a mistake: retired officer
Barb Willis, Karman's mother, said she knows her daughter made a mistake.
"She shouldn't have been out there, but death is an awful harsh punishment for being someplace you're not supposed to be," she said by phone from the auction mart that she and her husband operate.
"I just wish one of them would come forward and admit that somebody out there did something wrong," she said.
RCMP rushed to the scene but waited roughly 12 hours before entering with a search warrant.
Bob Bilodeau, a retired RCMP officer who had investigated Ludwig three years earlier, said that delay was one of several mistakes police made.
"When does it take 12 hours to go to a homicide scene?" asked Bilodeau.
Province rejects public inquiry
Sgt. Robert Finley, with the RCMP detachment at Beaverlodge, said the case is still open and therefore investigators won't comment.
Alberta Justice Minister Ron Stevens said he empathizes with the grieving family and others in the community, but he won't call an inquiry.
"We don't use public inquiries to solve crimes," said Stevens. "Public inquiries are not used to determine guilt or innocence, and in fact could seriously compromise any chance of eventually charging and convicting whoever committed this crime."
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