Air Force base commander charged with two murders

TORONTO - The commander of Canada's largest Air Force base, who once flew dignitaries around the country, has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of two women.

Ontario Provincial Police Detective Inspector Chris Nicholas said yesterday that Colonel Russell Williams, 46, was arrested on Monday in Ottawa.

He was also charged in the sexual assaults of two other women.

The charges left Canada's military in a state of shock.

Williams, a 23-year military veteran, was appointed as the base commander of Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Trenton, Ontario, last July.

Trenton is Canada's busiest Air Force base and is providing logistical support for Canada's missions in Haiti and Afghanistan.

Williams is charged with the first-degree murder of Jessica Lloyd, 27, a Belleville, Ontario, resident whose body was found yesterday, and Marie Comeau, a 38-year-old corporal found dead in her Brighton, Ontario, home in November.

Authorities said Williams came to the attention of police during a roadside patrol on February 4, six days after Lloyd was deemed missing.

Williams, 46, is also charged with forcible confinement, breaking and entering and sexual assault after two women were sexually assaulted during two separate home invasions in the Tweed, Ontario, area in September of 2009.

"We're shocked by the connection that has been made with a leader in our Air Force," Major General Yvan Blondin, the direct commander of Williams, said in Trenton.

"It obviously is no longer possible for the commander to remain in his position."

Lieutenant-General Andre Deschamps, Canada's Air Force chief, said the Air Force was fully supporting civilian police. He called it a difficult period but said the Air Force would provide support for personnel at Trenton.

Dan Dugas, a spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, called the charges serious but said MacKay would not comment.

Police descended on Williams' Ottawa home on Monday and police cars remained posted there yesterday. Williams' Defence Department biography said he is married.

Williams once served as a Challenger aircraft pilot who transported VIPs. The Air Force declined to say who he flew but the Challenger regularly flies Cabinet ministers and the Governor-General.

Between December 2005 and June 2006, Williams was the commanding officer for Camp Mirage, the secretive Canadian Forces forward logistics base that is not officially acknowledged by the Government or military but has been reported to be near Dubai.

"We are certainly tracking the movements of where this man has been over the past several years and we're continuing with our investigation," Nicholas said.

Williams walked into a courthouse in Belleville, Ontario, yesterday in hand and leg shackles, wearing a blue prison-issue jumpsuit. The judge imposed a publication ban on other details.

He was held in custody and will appear in court by video on February 18.

- AP