The suspect in four shocking small-town killings isn’t talking.
On Tuesday, OPP detectives said they had linked a pair of double homicides just nine days apart last year in Kirkland Lake to Marty Rosko, who reportedly took his life while locked in the North Bay jail on a separate matter.
If he was still alive, cops say “compelling grounds exist to charge and prosecute him with murder charges for the four victims.”
They certainly would not have been the first charges the 38-year-old had faced in his life. Indeed, a look at his criminal CV shows he had been trending in that bloody direction for years.
Gabriel Marecki, 47, and Amanda Lachapelle, 37, were found dead in a Woods St. home in Kirkland Lake on July 30, 2023. Lea Thompson, 33, and Kyle Robertson, 37, were then found slain in a Kirkpatrick St. home on Aug. 8, 2023.
My colleague Joe Warmington reported that victims’ family members believe the second double murder was carried out because Rosko worried his girlfriend Thompson was going to flip on him.
Martyn “Marty” Rosko had a difficult time keeping out of trouble, with a criminal CV that included arson, drug trafficking and assault.
Family is where seeds of evil are often planted but in Rosko’s case, it isn’t true. He came from a big family.
“They are respected in town,” a local source told the Toronto Sun.
“But the big question is: With his record, why was he out? How many chances are people supposed to get?”
Too many, apparently.
A perusal of the Postmedia archives is a testament to Rosko’s criminal industriousness. Before 2003, the entries for Rosko were for small-town hockey heroics. That year, something changed.
— Rosko was charged with assault causing bodily harm in June 2003 when he was 18.
— In 2006, he was charged with assault and possession of a weapon — a flick knife.
— In September 2012, he was part of a seven-person drug sweep in Kirkland Lake and was charged with multiple drug trafficking and weapons charges including breach of weapons prohibition. None of that three-strikes nonsense here!
— In July 2014, another major police operation that led to 45 area residents charged saw Rosko hit with drug trafficking, possession of property obtained by crime, and breach of recognizance.
— In April 2019, he was charged with assault causing bodily harm, uttering threats — cause death or bodily harm, and fail to comply with a probation order.
— In May 2021, cops were called for an assault with a weapon. Rosko, now 36, was charged with aggravated assault, uttering threats — cause death or bodily harm, possession of a weapon for dangerous purpose, and — of course — fail to comply with probation order.
Less than a week after the first two homicides and not long before the second set of bodies was discovered, Rosko was busted again. This time, late on Aug. 6, 2023, cops were called for a person who went to a home in “an intoxicated, frantic state.”
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As reported by the local Postmedia newspaper, “Concerned for their well-being, police were called but the person departed in a pickup truck prior to police arrival. The pickup truck ran off the road a short distance away and the person was located and subsequently arrested.”
Rosko, 38, was charged with operation while impaired — alcohol and drugs, refusal to comply with demand, utter threats — cause death or bodily harm, and failure to comply with probation order.
The next day, OPP charged Rosko with two counts of arson with disregard for life and three counts of failure to comply with probation in connection with a July 23, 2023 fire at a Kirkland Lake residence.
He would die in jail after that, and the families of his four alleged victims would not get justice in a courtroom.
A constant theme runs through a disproportionate number of homicides in this country. That is the never-having-to-say-you’re-sorry revolving-door justice system.
Rosko should have been behind bars for his breaches. He was not.
Instead of looking at the hulking man before them as a bit of local colour, the justice system should have seen Marty Rosko as a ticking time bomb.
Four funerals later, it’s clear obtuse judges and bureaucrats instead looked away.
@HunterTOSun