From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Sep 02 2009 - 14:45:08 EDT
A charred body and no answers
TheStar.com - GTA - A charred body and no answers
Police have a man in jail but can't identify victim or how she died in this
`completely bizarre' case
September 02, 2009
Michele Henry
Crime Reporter
Someone somewhere must be searching for her.
Her charred remains lie unclaimed in a coroner's steel fridge, their resting
place for five years now. She is a mass of cinders, her skin blackened and
obliterated by fire, her arms and legs gnarled and pulpy at the ends.
This woman was burned beyond recognition in April 2004 when the car she was
riding in became engulfed in flames – a conflagration in complete
disproportion to the suspiciously minor fender-bender that preceded it.
Known only by a number inked neatly on her toe tag, her identity is one of
the mysteries surrounding her death – a case that was a "non-stop roller
coaster of shocking information that changed from week to week," says cold
case homicide Det. Greg Groves, who also probed this incident when it
happened.
"It's completely bizarre," he says, two years after putting a man in jail
for crimes related to her death. "Who is this woman? How did she die? And
what were the circumstances that lead to her death?"
FROM THE VERY beginning, something wasn't right.
Within minutes of dousing the blaze in the Highway 401 curb lane,
firefighters eyed with suspicion the smouldering carcass of a rented 1999
Toyota Corolla. Just before the fireball, the Toyota had twice collided with
a Purolator vehicle, causing only minor damage.
The "accident" itself seemed strange. At 2 a.m. on an almost deserted
highway, the Purolator truck was heading east toward the Highway 400
overpass when the Toyota sped in front of it, then suddenly slowed down. The
truck driver slammed on the brakes but not in time. He struck the car
lightly then swerved toward the guardrail, stopping his rig at the side of
the road. For a moment, the small vehicle had dropped out of sight.
When the truck driver spotted it again, now in his rear-view mirror, the car
sped up and slammed into the Purolator's back fender.
Basil Smith, a TTC bus driver who was headed home from his shift, spotted
the Purolator truck on the curb with the Toyota. Still intact, the car was
right behind the truck, but with small flames just beginning to lick its
underside. Smith glimpsed Suimi Habteab, the driver of the Corolla who was
slinking away from the scene, and the two made eye contact. As Smith's car
rolled to a stop, Habteab returned to the crash site.
"You okay?" Smith shouted, striding toward the crash scene. Habteab was face
down on the roadside. "My wife, my wife," he kept shrieking over and over in
broken English. The flames had yet to grow monstrous, but despite his moans
Habteab did not move toward his car or attempt any kind of rescue.
"Your wife is in there?" Smith's voice mounted with panic. He karate-kicked
the passenger window, but to no avail. He scurried back to his car,
returning seconds later with a circular saw. But by then the cab had filled
with black smoke.
When the smoke lifted, firefighters found a woman's badly charred body
resting semi-reclined in the Corolla's front passenger seat. It appeared she
had not even tried to escape. Habteab, who is now in jail serving time for
crimes connected to her death, was unscathed.
FOR POLICE investigators, the next several months were a time of lies and
dead ends. And, of course, the question lingered: Who was the victim?
Habteab, who had moved to Canada from the African country of Eritrea seven
years ago, was quick to offer a name. The victim was his wife of two years,
love of more than a decade and mother to their 10-year-old daughter, Ramilla
Habteab. Stephanie Fratta was her name, Habteab claimed.
Still, something didn't add up. The night before the crash, Habteab told
police, he had picked up his wife at the downtown bus terminal, excited to
see her after an extended hiatus. She had arrived in Canada via the United
States, he said, but he could not remember details. She had a cellphone, but
he could not recall the number.
Her father's name? He didn't remember that either. Where was their daughter?
He didn't know. He gave excuses instead of answers.
While few of his claims were corroborated – no bus or airline tickets
existed for Fratta – investigators did find an Eritrean marriage certificate
bearing Fratta's name in his apartment.
Curiously, detectives also found an envelope from Purolator. Turns out
Habteab was suing the courier company for wrongful dismissal. Purolator had
terminated his contract as a truck driver a couple of years earlier.
The plot thickened even further when detectives learned gasoline had been
spread all over the passenger's seat and toxicology results revealed the
super-heated air they found in the victim's trachea was evidence she had
aspirated cocaine, allowing investigators to conclude she was dead before
the fire.
This was enough to lay numerous charges – endangering two lives (the
Purolator driver and Smith), arson, dangerous driving and indignity to a
body.
To this day, because flames had erased any wounds that may have been
inflicted on the victim, they have never been able to answer the case's most
pressing questions: How did the victim die and when? And did Habteab plan
the accident or was it a coincidence that he came across a Purolator truck?
But at the trial, where he was convicted on all counts, out came the most
startling twist of all: The woman in the car was not his wife. And her name
was not Stephanie Fratta.
Inexplicably, Habteab's lawyer sent a letter to the prosecution, Groves
said. In the letter, Habteab suggested the victim could be another woman:
Huberhit Temasgen. But police scoured the globe, searching for people by
both names but came up with nothing.
So the victim's charred remains still lie in a coroner's freezer while
Habteab sits in jail. Neither one is giving up their secrets.
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