Suspect's suicide note denies guilt

The man suspected of killing a Calgary teenager in 1987 – and who was also a suspect in two other high-profile murder cases – was found dead in his Victoria apartment over the weekend.

Police believe Terry Samuel Arnold, 42, killed himself with an overdose.

A photo of Terry Arnold released by Victoria police last month.

In a three-page suicide note, Arnold denied he had ever killed anyone, and blamed the media for harassing him.

Last month, Victoria police issued a public advisory that Arnold had been released from a local jail, after serving a 12-day sentence for breaching the terms of his bail on child pornography charges.

He was set to go to trial on those charges in June.

Arnold was the main suspect in three unsolved murders across the country:

• 17-year-old Denise Lapierre, murdered in Calgary in 1987.
• the 1981 slaying of Winnipeg waitress Barbara Stoppel, for which Thomas Sophonow was wrongly convicted.
• the 1991 death of 16-year-old Christine Browne in Penticton.

Calgary Police Staff Sgt. Barry Cochran says Arnold first became a person of interest in the Lapierre case in 1997.

"We are extremely frustrated that after so much time was poured into this case by three senior detectives, that we did not have the evidence required for prosecution," Cochran said in a statement. "The Calgary Police Service always believed that we would one day prosecute Arnold for this homicide."

Arnold had confessed to police that he killed Browne after she refused to have sex with him, but his first-degree murder conviction was later overturned and the charge stayed.

Arnold had a long history of violent crime. He was found guilty in 1991 of the rape of four Newfoundland girls – the youngest 10 years old.

with files from Canadian Press