Materials of D.E.L.I.A. (4-5.1)

I'm still sitting in my office, piled high with files, trying to sort through another batch of papers from Earl Knight. Honestly, the guy is possessed, going through old files like he's looking for the philosopher's stone. Now I have the case of Alexander Martin, the kid from Toronto, and damn, I don't understand why Earl even dragged Canada into this. We're digging into child deaths in the States, and he's dragged some Canadian kid into this. But reading through his notes, letters, and telegrams, I'm beginning to realize that this lead is not just there. Alexander, like Laura and Isaac, died of some atypical crap, and Earl seemed to notice something that connected them all. I fished out details from his letters, telegrams from the Toronto Police Department, and conversations with neighbors, the guardian's girlfriends, and the kid's peers. It's like a puzzle where half the pieces are missing, but it still gives you goosebumps.

Biography of Alexander Martin, Toronto, Canada
Based on letters from Earl Knight, Toronto police telegrams, interviews with neighbours, caregiver's friends and peers, 1990-2000

Alexander Martin was born on March 15, 1990, in Toronto, Ontario, in the Scarborough area of gray high-rises interspersed with neat lawns and Tim Hortons signs. His mother, Emily Martin, 24, died in childbirth from hemorrhaging before Mount Sinai Hospital could save her. His father, Jean Martin, a French-Canadian electrical engineer, died of leukemia in 1994, when Alexander was four. His stepmother, Ruth Lavoie, 38, a fanatical member of the Children of Light cult, took custody of him and lived in a modest bungalow on the outskirts of Scarborough. Ruth's house was littered with brochures on "spiritual awakening," smelled of incense, and in the evenings she sang hymns with her cult friends while Alexander hid in his room with hockey cards.

Note from David S.: Toronto? Seriously, Earl? We're digging through Houston and Miami files, and you're dragging a kid from Canada. Why? I read his letter to Elizabeth Crowe, dated March 20, 2000, and he says he found Alexander's file through a contact in the Canadian police, an Inspector LeClair. He sent a telegram with a brief description: "Boy, age 9, spinal sarcoma, diagnosis unclear, died February 2000." Earl noticed the coincidence of the age and the oddity of the diagnosis, like Laura and Isaac. But why is he so hung up on it? Maybe because Alexander is the last in the chain, and Earl thinks he's the key?

Alexander grew up in the shadow of Ruth's strict rules. She forbade television, considering it "a vessel of sin," but Alexander would secretly watch hockey games on a small black-and-white set owned by a neighbour, Mr Campbell. At school, Satec Public School, he was quiet, but teachers noted his cleverness at mathematics. A teacher, Mr Paul Graham, recalled in an interview with police in February 2000: "Alex was thin, pale, but intelligent. He liked to draw geometric shapes in his notebook - circles, spirals, like some kind of code." His peers, Josh Reed, 10, the son of a butcher, and Michael Chen, 9, the son of a china shop owner, were his only friends. They called him "Hockey" because Alexander dreamed of playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but Ruth forbade the sport, considering it "vanity of the flesh." Josh said (Knight interview, March 2000): "Alex would hide hockey cards under his bed, especially Mats Sundin's. We would play hockey outside when Ruth wasn't looking, but he would get tired quickly and hold his back."

Note from David S.: Hockey cards and spirals in a notebook? Looks like the kid was trying to escape this cult life into his dreams. But what did Earl see in this case? LeClair's telegram says: "Alexander's symptoms are similar to American cases - atypical tumor, age 9-10." Earl writes in a letter to Elizabeth that he was wary of Ruth's cult - he thought maybe they were poisoning the kid with something. But that's crazy, right?

Ruth Lavoie took Alexander to Children of the Light meetings in the basement of her home, where fellow cult members Madeleine Dubois, 45, and Sophie Leboeuf, 33, sang hymns and waved candles. Madeleine, a former nurse fired for stealing medication, claimed that "light heals" and made Alexander drink herbal tea with mint and mugwort. Sophie, a flower stall owner, taught him to "pray to snakes" by holding harmless snakes. Neighbours, Scarborough purists like John and Martha Campbell, 60 and 58, condemned Ruth. Martha told police in January 2000: "This woman is crazy. She took a boy to her meetings and he looked sick. We offered to take him to a doctor, but she screamed that God himself would save him." John added: "Alex was like a shadow, pale, hunched over, as if he were carrying a sack of bricks. We prayed for him, but Ruth rejected our faith."

Note from David S.: Cultists with snakes? What kind of circus is this? Earl writes in his notes that he checked the Children of Light through LeClair - the cult is registered, but under investigation for "animal rituals". He thinks that herbs or snakes could have influenced Alexander's illness, but that's nonsense, right? Although, if Laura and Isaac also had strange symptoms... Maybe Earl is not such a psycho to connect all this?

From 1998 (Alexander was 8 years old) teachers noticed that he began to complain of back pain. Mr Graham recalled: "He would sit in class holding his lower back, saying his back was 'on fire'. I thought he had pulled a muscle, but he was hunched over more and more." Josh and Michael said that Alexander had stopped playing hockey in the street and would just watch them rollerblade, wincing in pain. Madeleine Dubois testified in February 2000 that "prayers were healing him", but Sophie Leboeuf admitted to police: "Alex was weak, coughing, and Ruth said it was the devil testing him." Neighbours of the Campbells noticed that in his last months Alexander looked "like an old man": his skin was grey, his eyes were sunken, his hair was falling out in clumps. Martha Campbell said: "He was like a ghost, walking, leaning against the fence, muttering something as if he was praying to himself."