Local officers receive Commissioner’s Commendation

OPP News Release

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Sudbury - The Ontario Provincial Police – North East Region Awards Ceremony will be held Thursday, May 17, 2007 at the Radisson Hotel, 85 St. Anne Road, Sudbury, Ontario.

An OPP Awards Ceremony honours citizens and Ontario Provincial Police members who have demonstrated acts of bravery, lifesaving, community service and exemplary performance of duty. Length of Service will also be recognized.

This North East Region ceremony will honour recipients from detachments from across the region, Regional Headquarters and the Provincial Communication Centre - North Bay.

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Sergeant Joseph Strba & Provincial Constable Richard Tass

On the evening of August 21, 2006, a man and his son-in-law were reported missing when they failed to return following an afternoon of fishing and swimming on Lake Nipissing near North Bay, Ontario.

Both men were members of Hatzoloh, a volunteer paramedic organization, in Toronto, and were highly regarded within the Jewish community throughout North America. As a result, there was in an intense interest in this incident from the media and other sources.

Sergeant Strba was appointed as the incident commander for the North Bay OPP Detachment while Provincial Constable Tass was assigned to handle the logistics and serve as the media liaison.

The officers soon developed a rapport with the missing men’s families, business associates, friends and acquaintances. The search involved co-ordinating the efforts of many specialty units within the OPP, as well as the assistance of civilian and military personnel and resources, including divers, private aircraft and emergency services technicians. In addition, the officers had dealings with the United States Consular General, law enforcement personnel from the United States, and several Jewish organizations interested in the case.

Following five days of intensive searching in a combined effort by OPP members and outside resources, the body of the older man was found. Unfortunately, the younger man’s body has yet to be located.

Sergeant Strba’s rapport with the Hatzoloh organization allowed the OPP to make a presentation to the leaders of the Jewish Congress in Toronto, demonstrating what the OPP has done, is doing and will continue to do and leaving no doubts that the OPP has handled this difficult incident in an expert manner.

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Provincial Constables Paul Connell, Martin Grant, Sheldon Lapworth, Glenn Newell & Steven Salmon, Detective Sergeant Joseph Decook And Detective Inspector Kenneth Leppert

On May 29, 1956, a man and his wife left their home to spend the day at their cottage on Trout Lake in the Township of East Ferris, Ontario. The following day, when they failed to return, their family reported them missing.

Using the techniques available at the time, land, marine, shoreline and underwater searches were conducted with negative results. The case remained unsolved and was the subject of extensive local media coverage, as well as speculation on the couple’s fate, for years to follow.

In June 2006, new information surfaced, although without support evidence, indicating a possibility of foul play and the investigation was reactivated.

Detective Inspector Leppert became the case manager and Detective Sergeant DeCook, then a Detective Constable, was assigned to serve as the Primary Investigator and File Coordinator for the case.

In October 2006, Provincial Constables Connell, Grant, Lapworth, Newell and Salmon, members of the OPP’s Underwater Search and Recovery Unit (USRU), searched Trout Lake using new scanning technology.

Approximately 25 metres below the surface, the USRU members located what appeared to be images of a boat and motor and possible human remains. A subsequent dive confirmed the scanner’s findings.

The following day, a two-day recovery operation commenced during which the divers retrieved the human remains and several personal items belonging to the couple.

In January 2007, the results of DNA comparisons between the recovered remains and the couple’s surviving children positively identified the remains as the missing couple. The post-mortem examination also confirmed the couple’s deaths were not the result of foul play and brought closure to the area’s oldest missing person case.

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