Michael Briere

Michael Briere was a child-murderer and rapist responsible for the death of Holly Jones in May 2003.  At the time of her death Holly was only 10 years of age.  Briere was in his early 30s and had never been in trouble with the law prior to the murder.

Holly had just walked a younger girl back to her house and delivered her into the care of her mother before walking the 200 yards or so back to her own house.  Michael Briere, after checking that there was noone in sight, grabbed Holly by the neck, took her back to his apartment and sexually assaulted her, before strangling her to death.  All of this took place within one hour.  Over the next few days, Briere dismembered her body (first storing it in the fridge) and discarded the remains by placing them in several bags in a variety of locations around the city of Toronto.  In some cases, these bags were dropped into water; in others they were disposed of via garbage collection.  Briere admitted that the legs would never be found as they had been collected by the garbage truck.  The first bag was found the next morning on May 13th, 2003 - discovery of the others followed after Briere's arrest.

Briere was suspected after officers visited the house asking for DNA samples, which he refused on the grounds of civil liberties.  However, whilst in the house officers noticed carpets and rugs of a similar type to fibres found on the body.  They also saw a large quantity of cleaning fluid and a lack of clothes.  J-cloths and a mop were items found with the body parts. 

Michael Briere's motive was sexual deviancy as he had admitted to watching child pornographic and decided to act on his impulses - he pleaded guilty to his crime in order (he claimed) to spare her family further distress: however he never truly showed remorse over his actions.  Of particular note was the fact that although he claimed not to have planned or pre-meditated the crime, he decided immediately upon taking her into his apartment that he would need to kill her.  He also commented that he had been unable, in the event, to commit rape (this was borne out by DNA evidence) and that the experience was not what he had imagined it would be. 

The sexual aspect of Briere's crime sparked a heated debate over pornography in Canada and for the crime of 1st degree murder he was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years.