Mike on Crime

By Mike McIntyre
Winnipeg Free Press

One of Manitoba’s most troubling murder mysteries is headed back to court this week as police, apparently making progress in their investigation, try to block the public from learning new details about the case.

Justice officials have filed a motion seeking an extended sealing order on court documents that reveal “unique forensic evidence” surrounding the October 2000 killing of Beverly Rowbotham.

The original sealing order on the search warrants obtained by police expires today.

Several media outlets, including the Free Press, plan to argue that the veil of secrecy should be lifted, given the passage of time and the fact no arrests have ever been made.

Crown attorney Carla Dewar said new information about the status of the case will be provided to the court on Thursday, including the current state of the investigation and why police feel a new sealing order is necessary.

“There have been no charges laid at this point in time… the investigation remains ongoing,” Dewar said.

The Free Press successfully challenged portions of the search warrants in 2006 by arguing there was a valid public interest. Queen’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey only restricted public access to materials dealing with forensic aspects of the case.

The documents revealed the RCMP immediately identified Rowbotham’s husband, Mark Stobbe, as a suspect in her slaying, yet had been unable to gather enough evidence to file charges.

The Mounties called in an Alberta prosecutor to review the case in February 2001, but no charges were authorized. The RCMP said they opted for the out-of-province prosecutor because Stobbe held a high-ranking provincial government position at the time.

Stobbe has always maintained his innocence and the case appeared to be growing colder despite extensive interviews, forensic analysis and public pleas for information.

The RCMP cold-case unit took over the investigation in 2005, and police have remained tight-lipped about what, if any, progress has been made.

Stobbe has only spoken publicly through his lawyer, Tim Killeen, who said two years ago his client is focused on raising his two children “and hopes police ultimately come to a resolution of their investigation.”

Stobbe denied there were any serious problems in his relationship with Rowbotham.

Killeen said police found unidentified blood at the crime scene that he believes was compared to Stobbe’s DNA. The fact Stobbe hasn’t been charged suggests there was no match, he said.

“The blood must have been from the person who actually had done this.”

Stobbe said an RCMP officer told him in the early stages of the investigation that he was being viewed as the “prime suspect” based on a lack of other leads and “statistical probability,” Killeen said.

Neither Killeen nor Stobbe, who now lives in Saskatoon, returned calls for comment Tuesday.

Rowbotham, 42, was found dead inside her tan Ford Crown Victoria in a gas station parking lot in Selkirk in the early morning of Oct. 25, 2000.

Immediately after her killing, the RCMP assured the public there was no reason to fear a random killer was on the loose, but never said why.

Rowbotham, Stobbe and their children had moved from Regina about five months before the slaying when Stobbe accepted a senior position on the provincial cabinet’s community and economic development committee. It co-ordinates major projects in Manitoba that require interdepartmental collaboration.

Stobbe filed a lawsuit against two insurance companies in 2003 for failing to pay him more than $215,000 following Rowbotham’s death. The issue was later settled out of court when the companies agreed to pay.

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RCMP listed various pieces of circumstantial evidence, suspicions and theories in their applications to obtain five different search warrants in the Beverly Rowbotham murder investigation.

Two warrants allowed RCMP to search the River Road home of Rowbotham and her husband, Mark Stobbe, and seize all long-distance telephone records. Three later warrants allowed police to seize Stobbe’s clothing and jewelry and obtain a blood sample from him to compare it to a DNA profile at the crime scene.

The Free Press challenged the sealing of the warrants in 2006, winning access to everything except material dealing with “unique forensic evidence” surrounding the case.

Allegations included in the court documents included:

• Police said there were reasonable grounds to believe Stobbe might be concealing items of interest on his property. There is no indication whether RCMP located any such items.

• Stobbe told police Rowbotham left the house between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. to go shopping at the Safeway in Selkirk while he got their two young children ready for bed.

Telephone records seized by police show a call was made at 8:42 p.m. to Rowbotham’s mother. It lasted 13 minutes. Stobbe says Rowbotham left immediately after making the call.

• Stobbe told police he lay down in bed with his three-year-old son around 10 p.m. because the boy was restless. Stobbe said he fell asleep.

The telephone records also show a call was made at 10:06 p.m. to Stobbe’s father. It lasted only about two minutes. Stobbe says he made that call moments before lying down with his son.

Stobbe told police he awoke about 2:30 a.m. to find the lights still on in the house and Rowbotham not home. He became worried and called police and the Selkirk hospital. Police found Rowbotham dead inside her car around 4 a.m. Police say she suffered “severe head injuries.”

Police previously advised that video surveillance tapes show Rowbotham never made it to the Safeway store the night she was killed. Rowbotham’s family later revealed to the Free Press that police told them she was killed in the backyard of her family’s home.

• Stobbe initially refused to let police search his home or property when three RCMP officers went to speak with him on Oct. 26, 2000. Police obtained a warrant the next morning and immediately began a court-ordered search of the residence.

“It is here where investigators found what they believed to be the murder scene,” police wrote in the affidavits.