Susan Clairmont: ‘We’ve been firebombed’: Court hears 911 call from neighbour after a burned and dying Alan Rutherford came to their door
Editor's note: This article contains graphic content that may be upsetting.
She didn't recognize the figure slumped on her darkened porch.
He was burned. He had skin falling off him. He was not dressed. He was naked."
Karen Monk fights to keep her composure as she testifies about that night, four years ago. Her hands shake. Her voice wavers. Tears spill over.
It isn't until the figure says her name that Monk realizes who it is.
Then I looked at him and, oh my god, it's Alan."
Alan Rutherford. Her next-door neighbour. The friendly retiree who fixed her kids' bikes, ran marathons and cleared the snow from every driveway on their quiet Dundas street.
We've been firebombed," he said.
Then: Carla!"
He was calling for his wife, Carla Rutherford. She was still inside their burning home.
Monk called 911. The recording, played to a packed courtroom, is deeply disturbing. She is frantic. Begging for help.
While they waited, Monk asked what she could do for the dying man.
Alan, is there anybody I can call for you?"
Don't call Rich," he said. He did this. He'll already know about it."
Across the courtroom, Richard Taylor does not flinch.
Sitting beside his defence team, he seems unfazed by the 911 call. Or the photos of Alan's blood on the porch. Or the description of his injuries or of Carla's lifeless body being carried by firefighters.
Richard Taylor, 45, is Carla's son. He is on trial for her first-degree murder and that of Alan, his stepfather. Taylor has pleaded not guilty.
The Crown says he did it for the money.
In his opening address to the jury Wednesday, assistant Crown attorney Mark Dean outlined the prosecution's theory: It's about money, for sure. It's about deception. And it's about pride. It's about how the interplay of these three things led Richard Taylor to do something unimaginable."
Taylor, an elementary school teacher with a wife and two young children, was in debt, Dean said. He had borrowed thousands of dollars from family and friends.
His financial situation was dire."
On July 9, 2018, at 3 a.m., a neighbour's security camera caught an image of a person outside Carla and Alan's ranch-style home at 8 Greening Crt. in Dundas.
The person was pacing back and forth, lighting what appeared to be matches and throwing them on to the ground, one by one," Dean said. Moments later, the camera captured the same person running away.
At 3:30 a.m. the house erupted in flames.
Firebombed," was how Alan put it, while still able to speak.
Someone wanted both Carla and Alan - not just one but both - dead," said Dean.
During the six-week trial the jury will hear evidence that Taylor was the executor of his mother's will and stood to inherit a significant amount of money - but only if Alan was also dead.
An arson expert is expected to testify the fire was started with gasoline at the foot of the Rutherfords' bed.
Testimony from a pathologist will explain how the Rutherfords died. Alan died less than 12 hours after the fire due to acute thermal injuries, smoke inhalation and burns over 95 per cent of his body, 76 per cent of which were third degree. He was 63.
Carla died in her bedroom of acute smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning. She was 64.
Despite his catastrophic injuries, Alan still tried to rescue his wife, whom he met while they worked in a laboratory at Hamilton Health Sciences. The Crown says he ran through the fire and jumped out his bedroom window.
His movements after that are documented in blood," said Dean. Red smears left behind on doors and walls and objects he touched tell the story of Al's final moments and his desperate attempt to save Carla and his two dogs."
Alan ran back into the house through the front door, which someone had unlocked. He couldn't reach Carla.
He got one of their chocolate Labrador retrievers out of the kitchen and out of the house. He tried to get the other from the basement, but was unsuccessful. (It was rescued by firefighters.)
Then he went to the Monks' porch.
Lauren Monk, just 17 that night, took the witness stand and described trying to comfort Alan amid the chaos.
He apologized for not being able to get Carla out. And he apologized to Lauren for having to see him naked and dying on her porch.
She described laying her hand on top of his head. His hair came away in her fingers.
When her mom asked about calling someone for Alan, Lauren remembers his response like this: Don't call Rick. I think he had something to do with it" or I know he had something to do with it."
As Alan was getting wheeled away, I heard him mention something about his son-in-law."
The distinctions Lauren makes may be important for the defence.
Karen Monk testified that Alan always referred to Richard as Rich." Carla called him Richie."
Richard's father, Richard Sr., goes by Rick, she said
And Richard Jr. was not Alan's son-in-law, but rather his stepson.
Const. Jason Katzmann, the first police officer on the scene, kicked in the Rutherfords' front door (it gave way easily) but he couldn't go in for Carla. The heat and smoke would have overwhelmed him.
So he went to Alan.
He told me that the fire started in the bedroom," Katzmann testified. He said that his house was firebombed ... He said he climbed out of his bedroom window. And then he said that he couldn't get his wife out.
And he said that it was his wife's son Rich who did it."
Susan Clairmont is a justice columnist at The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com