|| news theprovince.com friday, september 30,...
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A4 Friday, September 30, 2011|| news | theprovince.com
REMEMBRANCE: Event scheduled by victim’s grief-stricken family
BY Jennifer SaltmanThe Province
A candlelight vigil will be held this evening at Surrey’s Holland Park to remember Maple Batalia, who was killed Wednesday.
“It’s for anyone who wants to come,” said Roseleen Batalia, whose 19-year-old sister, a mod-el and actress, was the victim.
The vigil will be held at 7 p.m. near the fountains, rain or shine.
Maple was shot multiple times around 1 a.m. in an open-air
portion of the Central City mall parkade just metres from the entrance to Simon Fraser Univer-sity’s Surrey campus, where she took health sciences classes.
“We’re just trying to just mourn and have family over,” Roseleen said Thursday. “Basically, we haven’t even decided on funer-al arrangements or anything like that.”
RCMP spokesman Sgt. Peter Thiessen said 40 to 50 officers are investigating the shoot-ing, up from 20 to 25 officers Wednesday.
Thiessen said the assumption is that Maple was targeted, but police are still unsure.
“We continue to attempt to
determine if in fact this was a tar-geted homicide. There are chal-lenges in doing that, extreme challenges,” Thiessen said.
Maple’s father told The Prov-i n c e t hat h i s d au g ht e r ha d recently broken up with a young man she had been dating after she “came to know something about his personal association with bad things.”
Harry Batalia speculated that his daughter died because of rage or jealousy.
Thiessen said the police are “actively and aggressively” look-ing into the allegations.
When asked if Maple’s ex-boy-friend had been interviewed, Thiessen would not comment. He
would also not confirm if Maple sought a restraining order.
“We are hopeful that we are going to make some progress here in the coming days or weeks,” he said.
As of Thursday evening, more than 6,500 people had “liked” the RIP Maple Batalia Facebook page and comments about the “sweet, down to earth” young woman poured in every couple of min-utes.
The grand f inale event of the Central City Annual Mod-el search, in which Maple was a finalist, has been postponed until further notice.
[email protected]/jensaltman
Candlelight vigil organized for tragic gun victim Batalia
BY Suzanne fournierThe Province
Women in the Downtown East-side are glad that serial sex-offender Martin Tremblay is behind bars, facing seven new sex charges.
Tremblay, convicted in 2002 of five counts of drugging underage aborig-inal girls before he videotaped him-self sexually assaulting them, was released from jail Tuesday, after a short stint served on drug charges.
He was arrested in Chilliwack the same day, at the request of the Van-couver Police Department, as he tried to board a bus to Vancouver and now faces new charges.
Tremblay, 45, is charged with seven sex offences involving four girls aged 14 to 19 in Burnaby and Vancouver locations between 2005 and 2007.
Tremblay, who allegedly plied very young aboriginal girls with intoxi-cants and made them call him “dad,” will appear in B.C. Provincial Court on Monday.
“Tremblay has been a predator down here for years. We’re glad the VPD laid seven new charges but we know many women, one only 13, were victimized because they came to us,” said Mona Woodward of the Aboriginal Front Door Society, who took part in the VPD announcement Thursday.
Lisa Yellow-Quill of Battered Wom-en’s Support Services said the charg-es laid against Tremblay “will let the public know violence against wom-en is not OK.”
“We have many vulnerable young girls on the Downtown Eastside who are wards of the Ministry of Chil-dren and Families who just cut them loose. Then they are homeless and
fall prey to men like Tremblay,” said Yellow-Quill.
And in a dramatic new develop-ment, Richmond RCMP acknowl-edged that Tremblay may be con-nected to the deaths on March 2, 2010, of Kayla Lalonde, 16, and Mar-tha Hernandez Jackson, 17.
The two friends died within hours of one another of a “lethal combi-nation of alcohol and drugs;” Kay-la on a Burnaby street and Martha after leaving Tremblay’s Richmond home by ambulance.
VPD Insp. Brad Desmarais said: “We are delivering on a promise to aggres-sively pursue allegations of sexual abuse of young female victims.”
D e s ma ra i s p a i d t r i b u t e t o “the strength and conviction of young and vulnerable victims who found the courage to come forward.”
Tremblay is charged with adminis-tering a noxious substance and sex-ual assault of three girls, including a 15-year-old in 2005, a 14-year-old
in 2007 and a 19-year-old between September 2005 and May 2007.
Tremblay also is charged with “obtaining sexual services for mon-
ey from a person under the age of 18 years,” involving a 16-year-old girl in 2006.
Desmarais said more charges
may be laid against Tremblay, not-ing police have talked to at least 11 alleged victims.
Sex offender up on 7 new chargesPREDATOR: Serial attacker arrested again over attacks on girls as young as 14
martin tremBlaY — submitted photo
lisa Yellow-Quill (left) of Battered Women’s Support Services, VPD insp. Brad Desmarais and mona Woodward, executive director of the aboriginal front Door Society, speak with the media thursday in Vancouver. Jason payne — pnG
maPle Batalia — submitted photo