Ian Thomas Caterill is dead
Ian Caterill was the subject of much discussion in the editing of Wish You Were Here. Eventually we took his name out of the book at the advice of the publisher’s lawyers (this particular lawyer had successfully defended a challenge from Conrad Black, so I was not going to ignore his advice).
Except when I did ignore it. He also said I couldn’t accuse Roch Gaudreault of being a dirty cop, I said, “Yes I can, it was on the front page of the newspaper that he fabricated witness testimonies!”
Ian Caterill was Gaudreault’s chief suspect in the death of my sister. The ring leader, in fact, in Gaudreault’s theory of “adolescent conspirators” and a drug overdose. Because he was Gaudreault’s chief suspect he became my father’s suspect. I never saw Ian as capable of such a thing, and anyway, there wasn’t any evidence – but that’s a long story, read Wish You Were Here.
Still, there were always questions surrounding Caterill that never got answered. As his obituary documents, he ended up on Gabriola Island, B.C., North of Victoria and Vancouver Island. One of the reasons we mentioned Luc Gregoire’s 1985 arrest in Saanich, B.C. – also on Vancouver Island – was to open the door for the possibility that Gregoire and Caterill knew each other, maybe having met in the low -evel drug trade in the Sherbrooke area in the late ’70s.
More unanswered questions. Ian died of a heart attack on October 6th, 2020 exactly two weeks after Wish You Were Here was published.
Même nom que Nicole Gaudreault 1979. Plusieurs victimes portent le même nom que les policiers détectives dans les années 70. Basinet, Yelle,
Une bonne observation. Bien que dans de nombreux cas, ce soient des noms communs au Québec. Peut-être des représailles / vengeance? Le plus frappant est Alice Pare. Elle venait d’une famille de juges et d’avocats.
I didn’t buy your book yet, so I’m not trying to comment what’s in. I just want to comment from what I read here.
It is quite likely that Luc Grégoire, and Catterill new each other in the Fall 1977. It may be easy to get started on that trail. Why wouldn’t you ask Grégoire’s sibling what kind of car L Grégoire was driving in 1977. One evening in possibly November 1977, I was quietly walking on “Rue du dépôt” in Sherbrooke, Qc, toward de parking when two couples appeared from King E corner in my direction. After they passed me, a yellow sport car turned the same corner like crazy and the driver followed the couple along the sidewalk intimidating the couple from the open passenger’s window. The guy in the couple was Ian Catterill, and the car driver was most likely Luc Gregoire (99.9%). I didn’t know him, but I never forgot him since. He was after Catterill’s female friend. I don’t recall that he has said anything to the former. The two couples were pressing the pace to get out of the situation. They were five guys in the car (very pressed on each other in the back), a yellow Celica Toyota. I think I saw GT on the back when he left. It was an early 70s model, possibly a 70. from the sidewalk, I asked the driver what he had in mind. He stopped the car, and got out of it, and he gave orders to one guy from the back seat to get out to fight me on the sidewalk while he was still intimidating the young woman getting away with the others. I wasn’t hurt in the adventure, and I have had time to see the guy’s face very well in front of me. The driver was young but looked a bit older, and he was giving orders, and making judgements. Finally, the couples reached the parking, and the Celica left leaving no one hurt.
To add to this, please, let me remind you that from the wheel tracks found in the snow by police on the crime scene in the Louise Camirand murder case (March 1977), three model of cars have been identified as being the possible model used in the crime; one of them was a Toyota Celica.
You really need to read the book.