Susan Clairmont: ‘This is ridiculous’: Court hears police interview when they tell Richard Taylor his stepfather’s dying words

They found the bag while cleaning out Mr. Taylor's office at Hess Street School after his arrest for two counts of first-degree murder.

A large paper bag from Home Depot, the kind you use for cleaning up leaves.

Inside were dozens, maybe hundreds, of papers. Bank statements - some real, others faked. Bills. Legal notices. Unopened sympathy cards addressed to Richard Taylor, offering condolences for the loss of his mother, Carla Rutherford and stepfather, Alan Rutherford, who burned to death in a fire at their Dundas home.

The Crown theory is Taylor spread gasoline on their bedroom floor and lit a match while they slept so he could inherit his mother's estate.

The trial has heard that with his dying words, Alan told several people Rich did it for the money.

The elementary school where Taylor worked as a gym teacher and librarian turned the bag over to police. It was January 2019. Taylor had been arrested days earlier. Carla, 64, and Alan, 63, had been gone since July 9, 2018.

Forensics officers and homicide detectives emptied the bag's contents onto a long table in the major crimes office.

They began to sort.

There was a lot of mail in that bag," Sgt. Annette Huys, a forensics officer at the time, told jurors at Taylor's trial on Tuesday. It was sort of all jammed in haphazardly."

They began to create piles. The papers told a story of a man in deep debt, going back to at least 2014.

Taylor was in default on his mortgage for the Oakville house he lived in with his wife, Evangelia, and two children.

The arrears are serious," a letter from Canadian Mortgage Financing Company said. We have been unsuccessful in reaching you."

Union Gas sent a letter saying it would disconnect service.

One credit card had an outstanding balance of $23,000. Other credit cards were also maxed out.

There were numerous bank accounts. Most had little or no money.

There were notices of defaulted bank loans totalling more than $70,000.

Hydro and water bills hadn't been paid.

A Hudson Bay account balance was $2,342 and three minimum payments had been missed.

Bell Canada gave notice it was suspending service.

One notice was addressed to Evangelia. BMO said her Mastercard account had been shut down and she was to cut up her card.

The trial previously heard Taylor borrowed thousands of dollars from a friend and never repaid it. He'd repeatedly asked his brother for money and was turned down. And while his mom gave him money, she wasn't planning on giving him any more.

The jury had also been told, in the Crown's opening address, that Evangelia will be called to testify.

She is expected to say she knew nothing of their debt.

Just how Taylor kept his dire circumstances secret for so long might be explained by what else police found in the paper bag: original bank statements with tiny bits of paper taped onto them, covering up actual balances with higher balances.

For instance, one doctored statement showed an account with a balance of $131,261.61. But when Huys carefully removed the tiny bit of paper taped over the balance, she found the account was overdrawn by $454.15.

There were many of these cut-and-paste statements and at least one appeared to have been photocopied and was found by police in the Taylor home, as though it had been mailed there by the bank.

The morning after the fire, Sgt. Michael McNaughton and another detective went to the Taylors' home to interview Evangelia.

Afterward, Taylor got into the detectives' car and began talking about the fire, even though he had given a formal statement to investigators the day before.

A recording of the conversation was played for the jury. He says he had an injured knee and couldn't possibly have been involved in the fire. And he can't believe Alan told people he did it.

That's impossible ... There's no f---ing way that he said that ... This is ridiculous," he said.

Do you have any financial issues? police asked.

Taylor offered an emphatic one word answer: No."

Susan Clairmont is a justice columnist at The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com