When Wellington County OPP Inspector Steve Walsh retires on Feb. 27, he leaves knowing one of his best policing cases would likely make a good CSI script.
Walsh is proud of the work he and a fellow officer did in a Thunder Bay investigation into a gravel pit murder.
He turns 55 this year and is “three, almost four years overdue,” to retire, and his wife, Linda, was urging him to go.
Walsh planned to be at county council Thursday, mainly because he was told to go. He did not want to take away from fellow retiree Kim Warner, whose plans were announced several months ago. Walsh gave two weeks notice.
He was the first inspector when Wellington amalgamated and became the first county in Ontario to have its own municipal OPP service. There were many meetings, Walsh remembered, and it was not easy to create the service because there were police services in Fergus, Harriston, and Palmerston to fit into the mix.
“We sort of took baby steps, and put together a contract that worked,” he remembered.
Walsh grew up in the Orillia area, headquarters for the OPP. He attended Centennial College in Toronto after high school to become a certified general accountant – but he never made it. It was a three year program, and he applied for the OPP after two years, figuring it would take a year or two for his application to be processed. He applied in August and was sworn in on Nov. 3.
“They processed me so quick,” he said. “When they came up with a job offer, I said, ‘I’m outta here.’ I was 21, and I was ready.”
He served in Walkerton, Mount Forest, Thunder Bay, Barrie, Geraldton, Mount Forest again, and then accepted the job to be Wellington’s inspector.
It was during his first posting in Mount Forest that he became involved in the Identification Unit, and he did so with an eye to joining the Criminal Investigation Bureau. While that never happened, he is proud of his work in “ident.”
In 1987 in Thunder Bay, where he was acting sergeant and head of the Ident Unit, there was a rape and murder of a young girl, Donna Tebbenham, in a gravel pit, on Mother’s Day. He and his colleague Dan McDougall “did probably the best [crime] scene work I’ve ever done. We had so much forensic evidence.”
Three months later, there was a similar murder, this time in Thunder Bay itself. The victim was Bernadette LeClair.
Walsh said Frank Fraser, of the Thunder Bay Police, was investigating that one, and while “forecasting” was still in its infancy, “We knew immediately we had the same killer.” They managed to get a fingerprint, and they also determined the killer had something to do with welding.
The print sat in Ottawa and every six months, there was a check of it. Then, the fingerprints and other data were computerized, and in 2002, they found a match, from a man charged with impaired driving. He was working as a welder.
Larry Runholm was described as a gentle, caring family man who led a seemingly ordinary and upstanding life; working hard, raising a son and impressing his family and friends, and who coached a little league baseball team.
Walsh and his fellow officers had caught a man who behaved like a serial killer for two deaths, then became an ordinary citizen, never killing again. Walsh remembers being ready to testify, but Runholm entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 20 years without parole. Walsh said cracking that case provided “some of the greatest satisfaction I ever had.”
A superior officer told him if he wanted to progress, he would have to consider administration, which he agreed to do. It led to his final job with the OPP. He came to Mount Forest again in 1995 and “I walked into all that restructuring.”
Walsh said he hopes in retirement to hunt, fish, ride a new motorcycle and have a hobby farm like the one near Mount Forest that he and Linda have shared. His oldest son Gregory is with the OPP in Oxford County, Robert is with the OPP in Goderich and his third, Andrew, is still in school, but planning to join the OPP.
Walsh said one of his biggest plans is to become more involved in racing pigeons, something that is now a hobby.
He said county council has been very progressive about policing, and cited the idea of placing an officer in each high school.
He remembers county councillor Jim Connell saying, “How can we not invest an officer in our youth.” Just last week, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said more officers are needed in city schools, years after it happened in Wellington.
“I was always able to convince [county council] you can’t look to yesterday; you have to look to tomorrow,” he said.
Warden Joanne Ross-Zuj said of Walsh, “There was never an issue that Steve wasn’t on top of.” She lauded his ability to teach, and noted several of his second-in-commands went on to be inspectors, including Paul Bedard and Paul Powers.
Former Warden Brad Whitcombe said, “When something runs smoothly, people don’t realize how much work it took. The transition to county OPP went so smoothly … He’ll really be missed.”
Former Warden John Green said Walsh brought a “passion” to Wellington County policing, and the county OPP is one of the best operations in the province thanks to him.
Police Services Board liaison and county councillor Lynda White said Walsh has put together one of the best units in the province, and “He will be missed – he leaves big shoes to fill.”
Walsh said the police board has agreed to expand the county’s drug education program, DARE, to all grade 6 students, another initiative he hopes will make the county a better and safer place to live.
