Jeannie King never made it home.
The 56-year-old Dawson City resident was found dead and frozen by a passerby outside an unoccupied Fifth Avenue residence around 2 p.m. on January 2.
Her cause of death won’t be known until an autopsy is complete, but police suspect alcohol was a factor. King was last seen alive leaving a party the previous night.
Carcross RCMP have nippy New Year’s
Carcross Mounties spent most of New Year’s Eve waiting for the right moment to seize an apparently suicidal man who had barricaded himself inside a residence with a gun.
The stakeout began around 4:40 p.m. It wasn’t until six or seven hours later that the 31-year-old exited the residence and was taken into custody under the Mental Health Act, said Sgt. Don Rogers. Following an investigation, the man was also charged with assault and uttering threats.
“It was nasty cold” that night, said Rogers - so much so that two Carcross RCMP members were later sent to Whitehorse General Hospital to have frostbite treated.
Whitehorse man dies in trailer fire
A 25-year-old Whitehorse man died in a trailer fire December 31.
The trailer was parked on a property in the McIntyre subdivision of Whitehorse. Police and fire crews responded to a fire report at around 5:42 a.m.
Police are treating the fire, which was contained to the small travel trailer, as “suspicious until proven otherwise,” according to an RCMP press release.
The man’s name has not yet been publicly released by police. Whitehorse RCMP’s victim assistance volunteers have helped residents affected by the death.
Man arrested for Porter Creek shooting
Ricco Zanolli has a long rap sheet.
The 20-year-old from Victoria, BC, is accused of, among other things, shooting one man in the arm, beating and stabbing another and extorting $11,000.
He was picked up Boxing Day morning when RCMP arrested him at a rural location just north of Whitehorse.
Ricco Zanolli faces 12 charges. They include extortion with a firearm, discharging a gun with the intent to wound, assault with a weapon, and assault causing bodily harm.
Around 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Whitehorse RCMP received a report of a shooting in Porter Creek. A man was shot in the arm in his home after getting into an argument with the attacker. He did not know the shooter, said police.
The victim was taken to hospital and released a short time later.
Two days later, on Boxing Day, police received a complaint of an assault and stabbing in Crestview. A man reported he had been pistol-whipped, beaten with a roll of duct tape and stabbed with a knife.
The victim, who knew the attacker, was taken to hospital, treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released.
Police investigated and linked Zanolli to these crimes. They also allege he committed two other assaults and extorted $11,000 with a firearm in December.
RCMP found a nine-millimetre handgun at the scene of Zanolli’s arrest. Zanolli is prohibited from owning a firearm due to past criminal convictions.
Police also arrested a 26-year-old woman from Atlin, BC, who faces three charges, including two firearms-related offences and a breach of undertaking.
Watson Lake Petrocan robbed
A knife-brandishing bandit robbed Watson Lake’s Petro-Canada station December 27.
Around 6 p.m. that evening, a lone man entered the station and demanded the attendant hand over cash from the register. She was told she would be stabbed if she did not co-operate.
He left with an undisclosed sum of money.
Police later arrested Richard Linklater, 27, of Lower Post. He faces charges of armed robbery and cocaine possession in connection with the crime. He was to appear in a Whitehorse court Monday for a bail hearing.
Sheep shooters fined
A territorial court judge slapped three Whitehorse hunters with fines earlier this winter for wasting meat during a sheep hunt.
The case goes to show that it’s better to own up to a mistake rather than cover your tracks and hope you aren’t caught, said conservation officer David Bakica.
“These fellows were trying to hide what they did,” he said.
Aren Coates, Christopher Kostelnick and Clayton Thomas were all fined $750 for wasting meat when they were sentenced November 3.
Thomas received an additional fine of $500 for providing false information to a conservation officer. He reported the wrong location for his kill.
Conservation officers were tipped off by other hunters of three sheep carcasses with wasted meat found at Trout Lake, about 50 kilometres west of Whitehorse, in November of 2007.
The carcasses, which were partially scavenged when found by conservation officers, had meat left on their ribs and neck.
That much meat may weigh about 4.5 kilograms per sheep, said Bakica.
It wouldn’t be considered much on a moose, which could easily have 140 kilos of meat on it. But it amounts to about one-fifth of the meat found on a sheep.
“Poor practice is what I’d call it,” said Bakica.
On top of the fines, the judge ordered the three men to attend a one-day sheep hunting course.
“If you make a mistake, report it,” said Bakica. “If we find out after the fact ... it won’t be helpful to you.”