Leslie Ann Talley - January 6, 2010 - Age 29 - Edmonton

[Desespere]

This is sad... This morning I saw the news and the reporter said it appeared to be a homicide. The article calls this a 'suspicious death.' I hope this is solved quickly. There is no name released. Let's say a prayer for her family.  

Body found in north Edmonton

By Richard Warnica, edmontonjournal.comJanuary 6, 2010

EDMONTON — Edmonton homicide detectives are investigating a suspicious death after the partially clothed body of a woman was discovered on a north-side road early Wednesday.

Police found the woman between a condo complex and a row of half-finished and newly occupied homes in the Kirkus neighbourhood just after 4 a.m.

Later Wednesday morning, a black tent covered a patch of road inside a ring of yellow police tape on 151st Avenue between 31st and 32nd Streets.

Police detectives and other investigators shuffled between their cars, the tent and a white forensics van as neighbours looked on.

Many who live in the condos say police woke them between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., hoping to find someone who saw or heard something about the suspected crime.

Residents of the newly occupied homes, some of whom moved in as recently as two weeks ago, said they too found out about the woman from police.

If the woman’s death is ruled a crime, it would be Edmonton’s first homicide of 2010.

rwarnica@thejournal.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Body+found+north+Edmonton/2411731/story.html

[lostlinganer]

  Yet another.... it's never ending!  There's just not enough police success in these cases.  Seems like it's time for law enforcement to be re-invented.  They are way too far behind in solving crimes of this type .... what's the chance of preventing them.

[Desespere]

The video at CTV link says some interesting things from the perspective of neighbours and contains information that may be hard to find some day. I hope the words I've read and heard in the above and on the  news means something other than a murder

http://edmonton.ctv.ca/#TopVideoAn

Go to the 5th story down on the LATEST NEWS FROM CTV NEWS
Click play button beside Woman's body found in northeast Edmonton neighbourhood story
I believe it is the 6pm local CTV News broadcast, with footage from this morning and daylight shots.
Link to the CTV web print version of the above where you can also watch the video and read the article posted at
http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100106/edm_death_100106/20100106/?hub=EdmontonHome
The article is similar to The Edmonton Journal story linked above

The information in the video linked above has reporters and residents saying the following:
- Investigators believe they may have a homicide on their hands
- Police said a man noticed the body of a woman in the middle of the road around 4:00am
- The woman was found in a northeast Edmonton condo building at 151 Ave between 31 and 32 Streets
- The woman was found across a new condo and across condos that need are still under construction
- Reporter Bill Fornier said police said the woman was not 'fully clothed'
- Police went door to door asking residents if they saw anything suspicious
- Police spokesperson Karen Carlson said the woman was "partially clad"
- Karen Carlson said finding the woman partially clad and in the circumstances they did is definitely "something that is suspicious"
- Reporter said the neighbourhood is on the edge of the city and is not used to a heavy police presence
- Reporter says the resident says trouble does find it's way out to the area and she suspects drugs deals and prostitution happen in the [narrow tree lined] park area behind the building.
- Resident says what happens is [when something is seen is] police are called and by the time they get there they're [the suspects] gone.
- Reporter says residents in the building believe whatever happened to the woman happened somewhere else and the body was left there.
- Resident says it's not someone from the area but they know the area and know they can get away.
- Police have to first figure out the identity of the woman and retrace the hours before her death to figure out how she ended up there.

The above video on CTV moved to 2nd in most popular videos on CTV Edmonton News website in about an hour

at the link http://edmonton.ctv.ca/#TopVideoAn there is an updated version of the story [my best guess the next is the latest]
Go to CTV NEWS VIDEO PLAYER at the top of the right hand side
under the player click on 3rd link from the bottom
Police investigate a suspicious death in northeast Edmonton

- Anchor called the woman "partially clothed"
- Reporter Bill Fortier says it's still not clear how the woman's body ended up in the area
- Reporter says the man who discovered the woman's body lives in the condos and was headed into work
- Reporter says the area is "fairly new" and on the edge of town city with new construction across of the street from the condo
[the video shows the body under a silver cover. The feet are showing and it appears she is wearing socks but no shoes or boots]
- Reporter says police got the call around 4:30 in the morning
- Reporter says police questioned residents about what they saw and heard
- Reporter says residents claim "criminal activity" often makes its way from the inner city and drugs and prostitution are common
- Resident says things going on there. Cars come in turn headlights off and then another small car would come in and turn the headlights off and then they do something [gestures with hands] and take off real fast.
- Reporter says police wouldn't say whether the woman was wearing appropriate clothing for the extreme temperatures

[Chris]

That sounds like a murder to me. Was she thrown out of a car? I am not familiar with that part of Edmonton but it sounds like a lot of construction going on.

[Desespere]

It's very northeast and a new construction area
I guess we will know soon
the facts are strange, the woman is not from the neighborhood and is unlikely she walked there herself.
The big question to me is what does
"not fully dressed"
"partially clad" and
"partially clothed" mean?

The reporter said they can't find out whether the woman was dressed appropriately for the weather.
It could mean she wasn't wearing a coat or shoes
We will hear more soon - I don't want to jump to conclusions.

[Desespere]

It's likely absolutely nothing but this date is the same as Ruth Degayo's murder

[Chris]

Not fully dressed sounds like partially naked to me.

If she was not dressed for the type of weather, they would have said something to that affect.

I think those descriptions are about as close to 'almost naked' or 'half naked' as you can get. And naked anything does not sound good at all if she is dead at 4AM in bone chilling cold weather.

[Desespere]

I think it is hard to say if partially clad means partially naked but if it was warm weather I would assume that's what it means.
The reports all say something about her not being fully clothed
I'm sorry but I got the dates mixed up and this woman was found on the 6th not the 7th which is the day Ruth was last seen.

I've been going through dates, Jan 5, Jan 6, Jan 7 and Jan 8

Many of the victims on the 5th and 6th were shot. Strange.
I'll post more about that in another section, not sure where to post those things just yet.

[SAP]

All new housing there. My nephew is not far from that area, and my dtr lives close, although she is gone for several months.
I don't understand how crime can settle in so quickly into new developements like that...some are rentals and some owned.
Being close to 153 is probably a draw for criminal activity b/c that's a pretty fast lane out of or into the area.

eta: Not far from this area is a high crime/drugs area, so it probably has just filtered over.

[Desespere]

We have heard no more. Who was the woman, what were the circumstances?

[Chris]

If they are saying much else, then it probably wasn't a murder. I hope they at least confirm it wasn't if it was not.

[Desespere]

If it isn't a homicide the news reporters should followup and let the public know rather than keep us wondering what happened. They alluded to murder from the get-go.

[Desespere]

Last link on the left reports

Leslie Ann Talley, age 29 (11 days shy of her 30th birthday) died of blunt force trauma. Edmonton's first murder of 2010 remains open and active.

The link shows a photo of Leslie, a Dene Tha woman from Meander River near High Level

Police say she led a high risk lifestyle and was of no fixed address when murdered and that she hadn't been at the recovery site for very long when discovered. EPS says Leslie was very well known to them.

EPS is consulting with Project Kare

Please read full details at Last link on the left
http://www.lastlinkontheleft.com/e2010talley.html

[Chris]

That is very sad. I hope this is an easy case to solve. It seems like it should be.

[Desespere]

A bit of an update from March, 2010

http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/alberta/2010/03/09/13175241.html

DNA offers hope of break in homicide case

By CARY CASTAGNA, Edmonton Sun

Last Updated: March 9, 2010 9:42pm

A break in the police probe into Edmonton’s first homicide of the year has the victim’s family cautiously optimistic about an eventual arrest.

Homicide detectives have now confirmed that they have DNA evidence that may lead them to Leslie Ann Talley’s killer, said Talley’s aunt, Gladyse Salopree.

“The DNA evidence they found on Leslie is foreign to her,” Salopree, 49, told the Edmonton Sun from her Lac La Biche home. But Salopree, who is in regular contact with the lead detective on her niece’s case, said there’s a good chance police may not be able to find a matching DNA profile in the Ottawa-based national data bank.

Talley, 29, was found half-naked and bludgeoned to death near 151 Avenue and 31 Street just after 4 a.m. on Jan. 6.

She moved to Edmonton about nine years ago after trying to jump off a Telus tower in High Level, her family said.

“She was ashamed to go back home (Meander River) after that,” Salopree said, noting the alcohol problems that prompted the suicide attempt only worsened when Talley relocated to Edmonton. “All she wanted to do was drink.”

Police have said Talley lived a high-risk lifestyle. Salopree insisted that lifestyle didn’t include prostitution, adding that Talley was religious and carried a picture of Jesus wherever she went.

“She wasn’t a hooker,” Salopree said. “Anybody who lives on the street and drinks in that area (downtown Edmonton) is living a high-risk lifestyle. It’s dangerous.”

Talley’s father died Saturday of what relatives called a broken heart. Officially, Albert Salopree, 55, died from pneumonia and some underlying health issues in Grande Prairie hospital, family said.

“He just gave up on life,” Salopree said.

One of Talley’s uncles said he’s confident police are doing the best they can and that an arrest will eventually be made.

“I’m pretty sure of that,” said Robert Salopree. “A person can never get away with something like that.”