[music playing]
NARRATOR: Dave Bittman is a constable for the Edmonton
Police Service.
On a Sunday morning, he and his partner
roll to Rundle Park Village, where
a six-year-old named Corrine "Punky"
Gustavson has gone missing.
DAVE BITTMAN: My first thoughts were, come on, now.
It's a quiet morning.
Perhaps this little girl went to the local convenience store
with another friend.
And maybe there's trouble at home
and she didn't want to go home right away.
I went up to the front door and knocked on the door,
and there I met Ray Gustavson.
NARRATOR: Gustavson tells Bittman Corrine was outside
playing with her friend, Lindsay, who reported
that a man had taken Corrine.
DAVE BITTMAN: Between her mother coming home with a look
of sheer terror on her face and the information that we'd
gleaned thus far, I had thought in my own mind at that time
that this was a bona fide abduction.
NARRATOR: To get a better handle on what he's dealing with,
Bittman walks to the back of the house
where the girls were playing.
This suspect walks up, comes right up to them,
and essentially just grabs on to Corrine, takes her in his arms,
and then turns 180 degrees and heads directly back
towards that walkway.
NARRATOR: Lindsay is unable to provide a clear description
of the abductor, but Bittman gets what information he
can out of the five-year-old.
We come around the corner and ask
our witness, point directly the route that this fellow took.
Point to us. Tell us.
Show us.
And she walks us again through this little walkway
between the units 147 and 148.
NARRATOR: About 50 feet down the walkway, Bittman notices a
dampened patch of mud and a footprint.
The most prominent footwear impression
that was inlaid in this mud appeared to be that of a sports
shoe, like somebody playing soccer or baseball would wear,
like a cleat.
NARRATOR: Bittman takes a sketch of the impression,
and a door-to-door search of the neighborhood begins.
Two days after Corrine Gustavson disappeared,
Detectives Terry Alm and Al Sauve
arrive at a trucking yard just outside Edmonton's city limits.
The body of a six-year-old girl lies in the mud
near the back of the lot.
It is not immediately apparent to the detectives
how Corrine Gustavson died.
It does appear, however, that she was killed somewhere else
and then dumped among the flatbeds.
She had been redressed.
The way in which her panties were on,
the way in which her pants were on, the way in which her coat
was put on all led us to believe that she was killed
and raped somewhere else.
NARRATOR: Not far from the body, investigators notice tire
tracks and cleat marks similar to those
found at the Gustavson home.
An autopsy establishes that Corrine was
most likely smothered to death.
The ME also discovers a single pubic hair
on the victim's left ankle.
But it was such a small piece that the DNA technology
at the time didn't lend itself to developing
a profile from that.
So the hope was that if DNA technology advanced, that we'd
eventually get a profile from the partial root
bulb on that pubic hair.
NARRATOR: By January of 2000, Terry Alm
has been working the Gustavson case
for more than seven years, nearly the last four
by himself.
TERRY ALM: So we decided to have all of Corinne's clothing
and the swabs reexamined.
NARRATOR: Alm hopes new technology will
be able to identify and develop a usable DNA
profile in the case.
He sends items of evidence to a private lab in North Carolina.
One year later, Alm gets a call.
The unknown profile is uploaded into Canada's National DNA Data
Bank and hits to a man named Clifford Sleigh,
a convicted sex offender and a name
Terry Alm is familiar with.
RALPH GODFREY: Clifford Sleigh had come to our attention
in May of '93 when he had sexually
assaulted a young teenage girl.
And he was investigated at the time.
His family had alibied him, and he was
sort of put on the back burner.
NARRATOR: Sleigh was one of thousands
of suspects looked at during the 10-year Gustavson
investigation.
Now he takes center stage and is asked
to explain why his semen was found on the clothes
of a six-year-old.
We knew from our background research
that once Clifford was put into or painted into a corner where
he thought the gig was up and the deck
was stacked against him, that he would tell the truth.
NARRATOR: Sleigh is informed that DNA testing has
matched his genetic profile to semen
found on the victim's clothes.
The next day, the suspect decides he wants to talk.
He is cold and calculated.
It's almost a matter of fact.
At that point, with us, there are no tears.
There is no emotion.
NARRATOR: Sleigh tells Godfrey that in September of 1992,
he was having marital problems with his common-law wife.
And he wanted to punish her.
And potentially, he wanted to locate
her daughter and assault her.
NARRATOR: Sleigh could not locate his wife's daughter.
Instead, he left the apartment and got
into his brother-in-law's car.
He went out.
And it would appear he went out on the prowl, or on the hunt.
NARRATOR: Sleigh says he pulled into Rundle Park Village
and noticed six-year-old Corrine Gustavson
playing with her friend.
And he tucked her under his arm and put her in his vehicle
and took off.
NARRATOR: Sleigh says he raped Corrine for some 10 minutes.
When he finished, Sleigh claims Corrine was still alive
and that he let her go.
We know how she was found.
That's very clear how she was found.
And that was not--
that was not truth.
NARRATOR: Sleigh fails to take responsibility
for Corinne's murder.
Godfrey believes it to be a calculated move.
RALPH GODFREY: I think he tried to minimize his involvement.
I think he knew the difference between first-degree murder
and second-degree murder and, potentially, manslaughter,
so that his explanation was made to try
and fit something less than a first-degree murder conviction.
NARRATOR: Sleigh is arrested and booked on a charge of murder.
Jason Track is the crown prosecutor for Alberta
and responsible for trying Clifford
Sleigh for first-degree murder.
JASON TRACK: He made the admission
of abducting this child.
He also made the admission of sexually assaulting her.
We looked at all of the evidence, and we believe that,
to a degree of 100% certainty-- not beyond a reasonable doubt,
but to 100% certainty--
she was dead when he left her.
NARRATOR: As part of his case, Track plays Sleigh's
confession in open court.
JASON TRACK: It was putrid to listen
to the tape of his confession and to hear this stuff coming
from his mouth and trying to downplay
his culpability in this crime.
NARRATOR: The tape plays exactly as the prosecution had
intended, Sleigh's words appearing to be both callous
and calculating.
If he was capable of empathy and remorse,
he never would have committed such a crime.
But he's such a botched human being that he
was able to do such an act.
NARRATOR: The jury deliberates for one day
and returns the verdict Track requested.
Sleigh is found guilty of murder in the first degree
and sentenced to life in prison.
Under Canadian law, however, he will be eligible to apply
for parole in 25 years.