Canadian True Crime - The "Nozzles Gas Bar Murder"

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

Yvonne Rouleau was a 34-year old wife and mother who operated a successful gas bar at the busiest intersection in Kingston. She and her husband Paul were working hard to make their dreams come—until it all came crashing down one Monday morning in 1991.* This episode is not part of a series - it's one of a cluster of four separate cases connected by a single thread. We’ll be exploring these other cases in a future episode.Special thanks to Kerri Kehoe and Robert Rouleau.Listen ad-free and early:CTC premium feeds are available on Amazon Music (included with Prime), Apple Podcasts, Patreon and Supercast, giving you access 24 hours early without the ads. Please note: case-based episodes will always be available to all, we will never put them exclusively behind a paywall.Full list of resources, information sources, credits and music credits:See the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production, funded mainly through advertising. You can listen to Canadian True Crime ad-free and early on Amazon music included with Prime, Apple Podcasts, Patreon, and Supercast. The podcast often has disturbing content and course language. It's not for everyone. Please take care when listening. Hi everyone and welcome back to Canadian True Crime. I hope you're well and that you and your loved ones had a safe and content holiday season. Last year I was contacted by a woman who was preparing her victim impact statement for an upcoming parole board hearing and she had an important message for the public. Her name is Kerry Kehoe and she is the survivor of a heinous crime that occurred in 1990

in Kingston, Ontario, and later connected by a single thread to three other completely separate crimes. You're not going to meet Kerri just yet though, because to tell her story, I have to tell you this one. The episode you're about to hear has been put together using court documents, news archives and input from the family. And with that, it's on with the show. It was Monday, May 6, 1991, and Paul and Yvonne Roulot were driving to work. The couple had been married for 18 years, and together they operated a couple of gas stations in Kingston, Ontario. They no longer lived there, though.

They'd just moved with their three children to a small community about 40 kilometers northwest of the city. They were still unpacking boxes and getting used to the new routines, especially when it came to getting to work. There was a bit more of a commute now, but to them, it was worth it for the lifestyle. The Rulo family were outdoorsy,

and they'd always dreamed of moving out to the countryside, escaping the hustle and bustle of the city. And thanks to their hard work with the gas stations, they were finally able to make their dream a reality. Nozzle's gas bar was doing particularly well. In the four years since Yvonne took over managing it, business had almost tripled. A large part of that was because of her personality. She was cheerful but also fast and efficient.

She had a sparkle in her eye and customers loved her. It didn't hurt that Nozzle's was located at one of the busiest intersections in Kingston at the time, Princess and Division. On this particular day, Yvonne dropped Paul off first at the gas station he operated, which was also on Princess Street about three kilometres away. It was about 6.40am and after saying their goodbyes, he watched as her grey Pontiac took off in the direction of Nozles Gaspar. There was no way for Paul to know that this particular Monday was the last day that Nozles

would ever be open for business again, and worse, that his entire life was about to change in the most devastating of ways. Yvonne Roulot's sister Lorraine was one of several employees of the gas bar and that morning she was scheduled on shift about two hours after nozzles opened. Lorraine pulled into the lot at around 8.35am and parked next to Yvonne's grey Pontiac. She noticed that there was also a Petro-Canada tanker hooked up to the tanks. Everything seemed perfectly normal that morning as she shut the car door and walked over to the kiosk to join her sister. Lorraine slid her key into the lock of the kiosk door and pushed it open,

her eyes immediately darting down to the ground, where she saw a pair of legs buried under what looked like an oil canister display that had been toppled over. It could only have been Yvonne. Thinking her sister must be unconscious, Lorraine started yanking the canisters away and noticed a large pool of blood. Panicking, Lorraine picked up the phone to call for help. The line was dead. Her only option left was to press a kind of panic button alarm which was supposed to summon first responders. And then she ran over to the Petro-Canada tanker, yelling at the driver, quote, someone just killed my sister. But then Lorraine stopped in her tracks.

She realized that she'd left her keys inside the kiosk, and the automatic door had shut and locked behind her. There was no way to get back in to help her sister. Desperate, Lorraine ran out onto the street to flag down an approaching car. As it pulled up, she saw that the driver was another employee of Nozzle's Gas Bar, Terry Kennedy, with his friend in the passenger seat. She'd seen them together many times before.

Lorraine begged Terry for his keys to open the kiosk. the passenger seat, she'd seen them together many times before. Lorraine begged Terry for his keys to open the kiosk. They ran over and Terry unlocked the door. When he saw his employer, Yvonne Roulot, on the ground, he immediately backed out. Lorraine heard him retching outside, apparently in shock about what he'd just seen. The tanker driver glanced in as well and immediately ran back to his truck to radio for an ambulance. But it was too late. 34-year-old Margaret Yvonne Roulot had been dead for a while, the victim of a vicious attack. She'd been stabbed to death. As police investigators were combing the crime scene, the city of Kingston was reeling about news of the brutal murder of a well-liked and highly respected community member, not

to mention wife and mother of three. People who knew Yvonne Roulot described her as someone who put in long hours at work, took care of her house and her children, and still found time to volunteer in the community. As customer and author Joanne Page would later write for the Kingston Wig Standard, quote, You know how some people can make contact with a smile? Yvonne was like that. It wasn't anything in particular that she said. She didn't run to service-oriented phrases or empty pleasantries. What she said she meant and the expression in her eyes matched.

She was the genuine article. Her way of dealing with life buoyed me up. was the genuine article, her way of dealing with life, buoyed me up. Yvonne's husband, Paul Roulot, was described as grief-stricken. He wouldn't say much to the press, but they tracked him down and he provided a few words. He said he had moved the family out to the countryside for peace and quiet and instead lost his wife and mother of his children. He didn't know how he and the kids were going to manage in life with Yvonne gone. Quote, I have three children, it's tough. A car accident I can accept, but this, it doesn't make sense. He said Kingston was in danger of becoming another Toronto. There were loud calls for tougher policing in the area.

At Nozles Gaspar, the other employees were all struggling with the heinous crime that resulted in the death of a boss they were very fond of. They hung mourning wreaths on utility poles around the gaspar, and several of them agreed to be pallbearers at her funeral. It wasn't long before the public grew increasingly concerned. A mother and a wife had been murdered in the morning at one of Kingston's busiest intersections, and the first three days had gone by with no information

from the police. And worse, the assailant was still out there. What if they were waiting to prey on someone else? Fortunately, the Kingston police provided an update that day. According to reporting by the Kingston Wig Standard, a police spokesperson announced that Yvonne Roulot had been stabbed to death. They didn't yet have a motive for the attack, and it appeared that the kiosk had not been robbed, but they did have some information

the public needed to know, followed by a plea for help. It had been determined that Yvonne Roulot had already been dead for around 90 minutes before her body was discovered by her sister Lorraine, which put the time of her murder at about 7am. And at that same time on the same morning, two young men had been seen in the kiosk at Nozzle's Gas Bar by about five Bell Canada employees driving past on their way to work. It was only a fleeting glance but these two men were briefly

seen exiting the kiosk carrying plastic shopping bags with red lettering which may have come from a nearby grocery store. One of the witnesses thought one of the young men may have been smoking. Brief descriptions of both men were released to the public. They were described as being white men about 20 years old with dark hair. One was described as taller with a medium build, and the other was shorter with a heavier build. The police announced they had taken the unusual step of setting up a special murder tips hotline, urging members of the public to come forward with any information they had that might help the investigation.

A violent killer needed to be taken off the streets, so it was imperative that they locate these two men as soon as possible so they could either clear them or arrest them. There was no further information until nine days after Margaret Yvonne Rulo's murder. It was suddenly announced that two men had been arrested, 23-year-old Richard Charles Joyce and 21-year-old Terry Douglas Kennedy. That's the very same Terry Kennedy who worked at Nozzle's Gas Bar,

the same Terry Kennedy who just happened to be driving past when Lorraine ran onto the road to get help. It may have seemed like a helpful coincidence at the time, but in light of this news of his arrest, it suddenly took on a very sinister tone. When Terry was heard wretching outside the kiosk after he first saw Yvonne's body, was it for show, or did the reality of his actions suddenly hit him? The other man arrested, Richard Charles Joyce, was the passenger in Terry's car that day. Apparently, they had both remained at the crime scene for the next few hours, and before they left together, reporters saw Terry stop and dramatically kick in the glass on one of the gas pumps,

shattering it in apparent anger about what happened to his boss. It was described as a really strange reaction. After the arrests were announced, the first reporters and photographers on the scene went back through their cameras and realized they had unknowingly snapped photos of a young man they now realised was Terry Kennedy. In the photos later published in the Kingston Wig Standard, Terry can be seen being consoled by the driver of the Petro-Canada tanker. At the time, he refused to give the reporters his name, saying he was too upset to talk about what had happened to Yvonne Roulot.

The reporters were shocked when they realized that one of the Paul Barrow's at her funeral was Terry Kennedy. Behind the scenes, the police had been eyeing up Terry Kennedy and his friend almost from the beginning. Investigators saw that the telephone in the kiosk had been pulled from its wire, and thanks to the keen eye of the other employees, they learned that a portable alarm was also missing from the kiosk. One of those employees was of course Yvonne Roulos' sister Lorraine, a key witness given

she was the one who discovered the crime scene that awful Monday morning. Lorraine gave investigators a play-by-play account of exactly what happened after she arrived to start her shift and who was in that passing vehicle she flagged down for help. Lorraine had worked many shifts with Terry Kennedy and told police that he mentioned several times that he was having money problems. In the months before Yvonne

was murdered, Terry made repeated remarks about robbing banks and on one occasion Lorraine recalled he said that he thought Nozzle's gas bar might be easy to rob. Lorraine thought it must have been edgy humor. She said she heard Terry complaining about money again, just three days before the Monday that Yvonne was murdered. He said he only had about $200 in the bank. In the day after that, Friday, Lorraine recalled working her shift at Nozzle's when Terry Kennedy

came by to pick up his paycheck, accompanied by his friend Richard Joyce, who Lorraine was also familiar with. Yvonne Roulot allowed employees to run a tab for gas purchases and pay her back when they collected their paychecks. That day, Lorraine noticed that when Terry paid back his IOUs, he seemed deeply unhappy. Quote, he was just upset because he didn't have much money left out of his check. While police originally announced that it didn't appear that the kiosk had been robbed, that didn't turn out to be the case. There should have been

close to $8,000 in the safe that morning, but after the contents had been tallied up, there was a little more than half that amount. Lorraine and the other employees of Nozzle's Gas Bar had provided detailed information about the day-to-day running of the kiosk, which included the security procedures for handling money. The process was this. When an employee had too much money in the register, they were required to parcel the excess cash into packages of $200, each put into a ziplock bag with a slip of paper that had the name of the employee submitting it and a few other details. They would then drop the zip lock bag into the one-way shoot that goes into the safe under the

floor. Investigators tucked this information away for future reference, but the arrows pointed to this being some kind of inside job. Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce were described by the press as former security guards who lived in the same apartment building. The day after Yvonne's murder, investigators attended their separate apartments to ask them a few questions and scope out their situation. The investigators arrived casually with no search

warrant, announcing that they were just on a fact-finding mission. They found both men to be cooperative in allowing investigators in so they could take a cursory and superficial look around their apartments. They saw nothing of particular interest that day anyway. A week later on May 14th of 1991, investigators returned to comb through the apartment building's central garbage collection area before it was all picked up and taken to the dump. They painstakingly sorted through 80 bags of garbage from all the tenants in the building and came up with one that could be easily linked to Terry Kennedy, thanks to an assortment of mail including bills and collection notices addressed to him. This garbage also contained one letter addressed to Richard Joyce.

With confirmation that this was the garbage they were looking for, investigators proceeded to go through it with a finer-tooth comb. To say their search was not in vain is an understatement. They found 16 Ziploc baggies, a number of which contained little paper slips with a name written on them. Employees of Nozzle's Gas Bar confirmed they had written on those slips before putting the Ziploc bags of cash in the chute to go into the safe. And now, here they were in Terry Kennedy's garbage, along with a check made out to Yvonne's sister Lorraine and cashed by her at the Gas Bar a few days before the murder. As you'll recall, the Bell employees who saw the two men at the kiosk that morning

said one of them was holding a plastic grocery bag with red lettering. A bag consistent with that description was also found in Terry Kennedy's garbage. It came from a local grocery store called A&P. Investigators would discover that Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce had been doing some serious shopping and organizing, particularly at two local sporting goods stores. The manager of Alfred's Sporting Goods would later tell investigators that two men had showed up to browse on May 10th, which was four days after Yvonne Roulot's murder. As a customer of Nozzle's Gas Bar, he recognised one of them as the attendant named Terry,

and he also recognised the man with him because he'd come in about a week earlier on his own, asking about camping gear and outfitting mountain bikes for cross-country riding. Evidently, the pair chose to purchase bikes from another Kingston sporting goods store a few days later. The manager at LaSalle Sports would tell investigators that two young men showed up to buy a couple of upland's mountain bikes,

and they put down $400 as a cash deposit, which he noticed was mostly in $5 bills. He recorded their names for the invoice and warranties for the bikes, Terry Kennedy and Rick Joyce. He said they took the bikes with them and returned later that afternoon with another $550 in cash to pay off the balance. The police didn't know it at the time, but this all happened the same day that they were combing through the garbage at the apartment building and discovered those ziplock bags. Back to Terry and

Richard, the two men then took their newly purchased mountain bikes back to Alfred's Sporting Goods to be outfitted for cross-country riding. The manager would tell police that the modifications cost $300 and they returned the following day to pick them up, again paying cash. They wouldn't get very far though. In the early days after Yvonne Roulot's murder, Terry and Richard had of course cooperated with police when they asked to take a look around their apartments. Perhaps they believed that this was all that was needed for them to be eliminated as persons of interest.

Perhaps they let their guard down after that, believing that the police wouldn't be back. As Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce were organizing the expensive modifications to their fancy new mountain bikes, the Kingston Police were obtaining a warrant to search each of their apartments with a fine tooth comb. And this time, they would not come up empty-handed. Get ready for Las Vegas-style action at Bet MGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips,

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Download the BetMGM Casino app today. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 or older to wager, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. On May 15th of 1991, nine days after Yvonne Roulot's murder, police thoroughly searched the apartments of Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce for any evidence that they had been involved

in the Nozzle's Gas Bar robbery and murder of Yvonne Roulot. By this point, investigators had spoken to multiple people who said that neither of the two men were known to be flush with cash. After all, they were only in their early 20s, and Richard Joyce was actually unemployed at the time. In both of their apartments, the police found and seized several wads of cash amounting to several thousand dollars. Some of it stuffed in a brown manila folder

and shoved under Terry Kennedy's mattress. Not bad for a gas kiosk cash attendant and an unemployed former security guard. Investigators also seized two passport applications and two newly purchased fully equipped mountain bikes from their apartments, complete with sales invoices from Alfred's sporting goods and LaSalle sports. Later that day, Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce were arrested and charged with first

degree murder. The two men were taken to the police station and placed in specific jail cells. It was strategic. They had no idea that just feet away in a hidden alcove, there was a police officer with a notepad and pen at the ready, listening in to their every word. Terry and Richard spoke about their arrests and how the police had searched both their apartments. Richard said he wished he'd had a gun during that search because he would have blown away the cops.

He also joked that he would be in the headlines the following day, adding, This would be a comical situation. I'm looking forward to this. Terry asked him why. To see how the system works from the inside, I wonder if I'd find you guilty. This is a joke. He also added, Life is worthless.

They were heard discussing taking a police officer's gun, escaping the jail and taking off across the border. Richard then spoke about God. I thought of saying, God forgive me, but I can't do that that would be fucking blasphemy. If I'm held in jail, I would slug a guard and get solitary confinement. At one point, Richard Joy started punching the wall with his fist, laughing.

The officer listening in noted that he seemed to be enjoying the fact that his knuckles were swelling. He was overheard saying, A little pain is good for the soul. Terry Kennedy was heard complaining about one of the officers they'd been dealing with, and Richard offered a crass response. He can suck my dick, maybe he likes it.

The police officer had barely clocked any notable comments from Terry, but Richard on the other hand seemed to be full of them. Perhaps the most notable and deeply concerning was this. Have you had any fantasies since you've been here? I've had a hundred and they all involved death, mutilation and torture." Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce were moved to the Quinty Regional Detention Centre, where they were deliberately placed in a cell next to a particular federal inmate who was also a police informant. He would listen to their conversation for 16 hours. informant. He would listen to their conversation for 16 hours. Both men were denied bail as they awaited trial. The murder of Yvonne Roulot had been dubbed the Nozzles Gas Bar murder by the

press, particularly the Kingston Wig Standard newspaper which covered the case comprehensively, with frequent reports on new updates. Kingston locals still couldn't make sense of it all, so there was of course a great deal of public interest in the trial, which began in May of 1992, almost a year to the day since Yvonne Roulot's murder. The Canadian criminal code stipulates that homicide trial should be heard by a judge and jury. A person accused of murder is able to request a judge-only trial, but the crown prosecutor has to consent to it. A few months before this trial started, Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce's separate defense

lawyers argued that there'd been so much local media attention about Yvonne Rulo's murder that it jeopardized their right to a fair jury trial in Kingston. They wanted the trial moved to a different location, but the Crown did not want this and agreed to a judge-alone trial as long as it stayed in Kingston. There were more delays after the trial started as the defense lawyers tried to argue that various pieces of evidence should be thrown out. Terry Kennedy's lawyer argued

that the items recovered from his garbage, including the Ziploc bags and employee cash slips, had been obtained improperly because the police didn't have a warrant for that search, and going through his garbage was an invasion of privacy. In addition, the defense argued there was no proof that it was actually Terry's garbage because the garbage collection area was accessible to all the apartment building's

residents. The judge did not agree. She stated that there was no reasonable expectation of privacy after a person abandons a garbage bag and allowed this evidence. Another piece of evidence the defense tried to have thrown out was the testimony from those Bell employees about the two men they saw in an around Nozzle's Gasper at around the time Yvonne was murdered. The judge heard that there was some disparity in the description, with two of the Bell employees saying that there was a decent height difference between Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce when in reality they were virtually the same height.

In addition, one of the employees reported that one of the men may have been smoking when neither Kennedy nor Joyce smoked, according to the defence. But again, the judge didn't agree, stating that there'd only been a brief opportunity for these bell employees to observe this situation as they were driving past that morning. This evidence was also admitted. One of the Crown's key witnesses was of course Yvonne's sister Lorraine, who testified about the conversations she'd had with Terry Kennedy about his money woes and his repeated remarks about robbing banks.

She told the judge about his comment one time that Nozzle's gas bar would be easy to rob. But there was more. About four months after Yvonne's murder, when Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce appeared in court for a preliminary hearing, something Lorraine heard triggered a sudden memory. She recalled another comment that Terry had made about a month before the murder. Lorraine testified that in one of her conversations with Terry where he spoke about money and potentially robbing Nozzle's gas bar. He also mentioned the possibility of cutting Yvonne's throat and laughed about it. Of course, Lorraine was bothered by the comment

and found it disturbing, but she said you have to consider the source. It came from a 21-year-old man known for being a bit of an edge lord. She put it down to just black humor and questionable taste on his part and forgot about it, never mentioning the comment to her sister Yvonne. In fact, Lorraine said she didn't even think about it again herself, even after the shock of discovering her sister's body about a month later.

She testified that the doctor had prescribed her a drug similar to valium to calm her nerves and help her sleep for the first few months, and she was so deep into grief and shock that she never stopped to analyze everything that happened. After she first recalled that additional comment, she told her husband immediately and he said it was important enough for her to go straight to the police. But Lorraine was a bit afraid. She'd already spoken to investigators and she was worried the police wouldn't believe her or might think she'd made it up. She also assumed that the Crown already had enough evidence to go to trial. In the end, about three weeks before the trial was due to start,

Lorraine decided to come forward to tell the police that when Terry Kennedy mentioned robbing Nozzle's gas bar, he had also laughed about mentioning the possibility of cutting Yvonne Roulot's throat. Of course, his defence lawyer tried to argue that Lorraine was lying and that no such conversation had ever taken place. The judge would not agree. As it turned out, Lorraine wasn't the only one who had heard about a robbery plan that may have involved Nozzle's gas bar. William Turcott, a mutual friend of both Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce, gave testimony that was described as perhaps the strongest evidence presented against them.

He told the court about a conversation he had with Terry Kennedy about five months before Yvonne Roulos' murder, where they discussed making a plan to go on vacation south, somewhere warm, maybe Florida. At some point, he said Richard Joyce came into the conversation and started steering their plans towards going to Mexico instead, for a whole year. He claimed it was far cheaper to live in Mexico and estimated they could live there comfortably for about $3,000 each. William Turcott testified that he wasn't interested in this plan so backed off after that, until about a month before Yvonne Roulos' murder when he saw Richard. He asked him if he and Terry were still planning to go to Mexico, and Richard said yes. William asked him how he planned to pay for it,

given he didn't have a job at the time. Richard replied that he and Terry were planning to rob Nozzle's gas bar and were prepared to, quote, kill anyone who got in the way. They'd even decided that the robbery should be on a Monday morning when the manager first opened up the safe because Terry and the other employees knew it would still hold all the money collected from the weekend sales.

All they had to do was hit that Gazpar before the money was banked later that morning. William asked Richard about the fact that the manager would recognize them. Quote, what are you gonna do? Shoot them? Richard replied that he and Terry would not be stupid enough to shoot the manager. He would stab them instead, although there was no further information given about the logic behind this conclusion. William testified that he didn't really take the conversation seriously at the time. But the evening of Monday, May 6th, he heard a radio report about a murder at Nozzle's

Gas Bar and immediately suspected his friends might have been involved. But he didn't want to believe it. He said he stewed over whether to go to the police for about five hours and eventually showed up to Kingston Police headquarters at around midnight that night. A forensic pathologist testified that Yvonne Roulot suffered a horrendous and brutally violent attack. She'd been punched in the face repeatedly. She had a black eye and bruising to her scalp and

the nape of her neck. Also in that area was a series of distinctive V-shaped cuts, consistent with a sharp instrument having been directed into her neck and pulled out at a slightly different angle with a twisting action. She'd been stabbed a total of 37 times. The wounds consistent with her facing the safe and the floor bent over working on the dial to get into it with the assailant likely behind her. It appeared as though Yvonne had been intentionally tortured with that knife. Then, her throat was slit, leaving a 17-centimeter gash. Yvonne would have bled to death within minutes. The forensic pathologist determined that from the way the final knife wound had been inflicted across Yvonne's throat, the assailant was likely holding the knife in their left hand, although that didn't

mean they were necessarily left-handed. That said, there was some attempt by the defence to deflect this evidence, specifically Richard Joyce's defence lawyer. When William Turcott testified about his conversations with Richard about money and Mexico, he was asked on cross-examination if he recalled whether Richard was right or left-handed. He said he never really paid much attention to his hand preference, but he thought he may have been right-handed.

Richard's lawyer tried to use this response to argue that Richard could not have been the one holding the knife, because anyone inflicting that sort of wound from behind would have naturally chosen to do it with their stronger or dominant hand, meaning the left hand, and therefore not Joyce. and therefore not Joyce. In response, the Crown argued that the killer could still have been right-handed and use their right-dominant hand to grip Yvonne by her hair and control her while she opened the safe, as they held the knife in the left hand. At the end of the day, there just wasn't enough solid evidence presented to form any kind of conclusion about the knife and who may or may not have been holding it.

The Crown had presented evidence that Richard Joyce and Terry Kennedy had spoken about needing money and planned to get it by robbing Nozzle's gas bar. Employees had also testified about hearing Terry complaining about having no money. Yet they noticed that a week after their boss was murdered, he was suddenly cashed up. Regardless of who was actually holding the knife, the evidence suggested that they needed money and both participated in the planning and execution of the robbery of the Nozzles Gas Bar safe. But the elephant in the room that no one could account for was the brutal violence involved.

If the motive for the crime was just to get money from that safe, why didn't they at least try to wear some kind of disguise? Why did they violently attack Yvonne Roulot, leaving evidence that she'd been tortured with the tip of a knife, jabbing and twisting into her dozens of times? Why did they have to slit her throat

and leave her to bleed out? In terms of criminal records, Terry Kennedy had one other criminal conviction at the time, but it was just for a theft the year before Yvonne's murder. There appeared to be nothing else in their histories that could shed any light on why the attack was so brutal and over the top. That was, until the court heard evidence about the two overheard jail conversations.

The first was of course just after Kennedy and Joyce had been arrested and placed in cells at the local police station. The officer listening to them from a hidden alcove nearby testified about hearing Richard Joyce saying he fantasized about death, mutilation and torture. The second overheard conversation was after Joyce and Kennedy had been transferred to the Quinty detention center and placed near that federal inmate who was also a police informant. That inmate turned informant, testified that he sat

with a notepad and pen for about 16 hours, listening to the conversation and writing down individual comments made by Terry and Richard as they spoke about escape plans, taking guns from the guards and killing the judge at trial. They also talked about what sounded to him like the crime of murdering Yvonne Roulot and expressing pleasure in having committed it. At one point, the informant overheard the voice he'd been told belonged to Terry Kennedy, who was obviously sitting on the toilet, and remarked that he could perform a certain bodily function more easily, quote,

now that she's dead. But once again, the most notable comments came from the other voice, Richard Joyce. It's important to note that this police informant acknowledged his English at the time was poor, but here are some comments he testified that he heard from Richard, edited slightly for clarity. Did you see her face when she saw the knife? She tried to stick her head out the window and started yelling and kicking. The informant heard them both laughing at this point and commented that he'd seen a lot in his life, including many criminals talking about their crimes, but he hadn't

heard anyone, quote, make fun of it like that. More comments he attributed to Richard Joyce included the following. In response to this, the informant said he heard Terry Kennedy say that if he were to be convicted, he would need to be kept on permanent suicide watch. There are also these separate comments made by Richard. I never feel kind of pleasure like that before. That was great. The hole was big enough to put my dick in.

One each shot that's like my hand go inside the bodies. When I give it to her, that was the best part. In response to this, the informant testified that Terry told Richard he was gross and psycho. These comments stood out as an anomaly in the trial record. No one knew quite what to do with them. There'd been no evidence presented that Yvonne Rulo may have been sexually assaulted during the attack, and neither Terry Kennedy nor Richard Joyce had ever been suspected or identified as a sex offender themselves. Richard Joyce's defense lawyer suggested that this inmate and police informant was a liar, a scoundrel who couldn't be trusted.

But because neither Joyce nor Kennedy would be testifying in their own defence, there would be no opportunity to question them about this. At this trial anyway. In closing arguments, the crown prosecutor summed up their theory of the case. That morning, Monday, May 6th of 1991, Yvonne Roulot arrived at the gas station and activated its credit card system at 6.41 a.m. Shortly after this, she was surprised by her employee, Terry Kennedy, and his companion companion Richard Joyce, who entered the kiosk with intent to take money from the safe and kill Yvonne afterwards. The

crown contended that Yvonne Roulot was held by her hair over the gas bar's floor safe and tortured with punches to the head and face along with dozens of shallow knife jabs into her neck and shoulders, to force her to open the safe and give them the money. Then they cut her throat with the knife and left her to die to keep her from identifying them as the perpetrators. The Crown gave no statement about which man may have been holding the knife, because it didn't really matter.

The Crown's case was that both Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce were responsible for the brutal first degree murder of 34-year-old Yvonne Roulot. The defense called no evidence of their own. In closing arguments, the defense lawyers for both men reiterated their arguments that the Crown Witnesses were all liars or had been mistaken, and the evidence found in the garbage had limited

value. With that, Madam Justice McLeod retired to decide on a verdict. The judge returned with a verdict to a packed courtroom and began by describing the murder of Margaret Yvonne Roulot as a sickening heinous crime. She determined that Yvonne's sister Lorraine was a credible witness. Her account of the conversation with Terry Kennedy about robbing Nozzle's gas bar was believable, and so were the reasons she gave for the delay in telling the police when she later remembered Terry had also mentioned cutting Yvonne's throat. Justice McLeod determined that William Turcott,

the mutual friend of both Kennedy and Joyce, was also a credible witness with a story that was wholly believable. The judge stated that she found the garbage evidence, especially damning, although Ziploc baggies with verified employee slips that should have been in the safe at Nozzle's Gas Bar, but were instead found in residential garbage

determined to belong to Terry Kennedy. The judge also noted the police seizure of wads of cash and new mountain bikes at the apartments of the two men, which he estimated to be worth just over $6,000 in total. Quote, this from two men who had no money. Justice MacLeod commented about Terry Kennedy retching around the side of the kiosk after he'd seen Yvonne Roulot's body on the floor.

Quote, all I can take from that is that he had a weak stomach when he was faced with the horror of his actions, and he saw Yvonne Roulot lying in a pool of blood. The judge stated that Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce had been the agents of Yvonne Roulot's death and determined that it was a planned and deliberate murder. She found that Yvonne Roulot was tortured, mutilated and killed just as Richard Joyce fantasized and that comments attributed to him and those two overheard conversations

in jail demonstrated that he derived sexual pleasure from remembering details of the murder. She also noted that there was a suggestion of a sexual motive in the comments, more of a thrill-killing than just a robbery gone wrong. This observation remained an unexplained anomaly, but overall the judge was convinced that when Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce first entered the gas bar, they fully intended to cause Yvonne Roulot's death. With that, she found both men guilty of first degree murder.

They were given an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years. At this, Kingston Wig Standard Journalists described 23-year-old Terry Kennedy as appearing to break down and sob. 24-year-old Richard Joyce, however, had been seen sucking on a candy as the judgement was being read out, and after the sentence was announced, he was seen breaking into laughter when speaking with his lawyer. This, of course, greatly upset the loved ones of Yvonne Roulot. Her husband Paul never opened Nozzle's Gas Bar again,

and nine months after her murder, Petro-Canada had started ripping up the site, tearing down the building and removing the underground gas tanks. It was all gone by the time the trial started. Paul Roulot had stayed working at his other gas station down the road for a while, but within a few years he would be out of the gasoline business altogether. Paul was clearly a very private man, and whenever reporters managed to get him to talk, he was clear that he just wanted to get on with the realities of life as a widower with three kids, outside of the public eye. Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce both filed notices of appeal, asking for the court to overturn their convictions and grant them new trials. The grounds for the appeals were almost identical to the arguments their lawyers had made before and during the trial.

The court of appeal dismissed it on all grounds. The last hope for Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce was the faint hope clause, the popular name for a now repealed section of the Canadian Criminal Code. It gave prisoners serving life sentences the chance to apply for early parole after serving 15 years of their sentence, instead of waiting for 25. The faint hope clause was introduced in the 70s after the death penalty was abolished, with the intent to motivate lifeers to work towards rehabilitating themselves. It was incredibly political and finally repealed

in 2011, but it is still available to inmates serving life sentences for crimes committed before that year. So because Yvonne Roulot was murdered in 1991, Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce were eligible to apply to the Fate Hope Jury in 2006. And they both did apply that year, but because of a number of delays, it would be another four years before a hearing was confirmed. In March of 2010, the Kingston Wigs Standard reported that Terry Kennedy and Richard Joyce, both in their early 40s by that point, had been approved to apply to a faint hope jury for a chance to ask the parole board for early parole. This would be the first faint hope hearings held in Kingston since the clause was first introduced.

By this point, it had been 19 years since Yvonne Roulot's murder. In response to questions from reporters, her husband Paul flatly stated that those years were hell and he did not want to speak publicly about a matter that was so private to the family. Quote, she was my wife, she was murdered, end of subject. The only reason he had chosen to comment at all was to express anger that the first he had heard about this faint hope hearing was when he woke up and read about it in the newspaper. No one warned him that this would happen and he was stunned. He described the feeling as quote,

like having a scab on the back of your hand and it's just about ready to heal and somebody rips it off. Now you got that open wound and here it goes I gotta start healing all over again. He added, well it never really heals. The hearing for 41-year-old Terry Kennedy was first in January of 2011. The court heard victim impact statements from Yvonne Roulot's family members, including her children,

who recounted what it was like to lose their beloved mother in such tragic circumstances and the hardships of having to live life without her after that. In the victim impact statement given by their father, Paul Roulot, he said that if she had of lived, they would have just celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary. Paul told the court that Yvonne treated her employees at Nozzle's Gas Bar like members of her own family. If she learned that one of them had arrived hungry, she would send them out for a meal or pick something up for them. So it was particularly difficult for her family to hear that one of

those employees had been involved in her murder. As for Terry Kennedy agreeing to be a Paul bearer at Yvonne's funeral, Paul described that as a betrayal that no one in the family will ever forget. He also provided a few distressing anecdotes about the family's experience behind the scenes. The police kept the details about how Yvonne had been murdered away from him and the children, but this meant that the first time they learned that she'd been brutally stabbed to death was from the front page of the newspaper. Quote, My children had to read the horrible things that these men had done to their mother. Paul Roulot admitted he'd been angry for years. Quote,

Angry at the two men that changed our lives forever. Angry at the parole board every time I am not notified about a change in their prisoner status, and not notified about big events like this faint hope clause, which I had to hear about along with my children on the radio." He added, "...why do I have to prove again and again to anybody how hard this has been on myself and my family?" He said that for at least a year after his wife was murdered, he wasn't able to drive past Nozzle's Gas Bar and he still struggles to drive past it to this day.

At the original trial, neither Richard Joyce nor Terry Kennedy testified in their own defense, but the faint hope hearing would be different. 41-year-old Terry Kennedy took to the witness box to convince the jury he deserved a chance to appear before the parole board earlier than scheduled. He provided his side of the story, testifying that he'd been working at Nozzle's Gas Bar for about a year and a half at the time. He agreed that Yvonne Roulot treated him well, giving him pay rises and allowing him and other employees to run tabs for their own gas when they didn't have cash ready. Terry told the Faint Hope jury that he and Richard Joyce had been planning a dream trip

to bike through the southern US and down to Mexico in 1991. but by early spring of that year, they hadn't actually saved any money for it and started discussing ways to get their hands on some. They made a plan to rob Nozzle's gas bar after one weekend in late April, but Terry said he chickened out. Over the next week, he started skimming money out of cash deposits, but they needed more, a larger amount. The robbery plan was back on for the following Monday morning, which was May 6th of 1991. Terry testified that he and Richard arrived at Nozzle's Gas Bar early and parked the car

at a nearby vantage point as they waited for Yvonne Roulot to arrive and open up the kiosk. They'd grabbed a knife from Terry's kitchen which he described as the quote scariest looking one in the drawer and they plan to use it to intimidate Yvonne into letting them access the safe. They watched as her car pulled into the lot, and once she'd let herself into the kiosk, Terry and Richard got out of their car and walked over. It was about 6.45 am. Terry testified that Yvonne was surprised to see him and asked what he was doing there. He told her that they were just coming from a friend's place and wanted some cigarettes. He asked if she could let them inside, and she did. He said that the plan was for Richard to

get inside the kiosk first, so he would be in position to commit the robbery. But they ended up in the wrong positions and Terry said, quote, I had to punch her in the stomach and knock her down in front of the safe. Terry testified that as he was holding Yvonne by her coveralls, Richard handed him the knife. He held it against her throat and told her they were there to rob the safe. They instructed her that when the police arrived, she was to tell them that two strangers had robbed the kiosk

and she was to give the same story to her husband. Terry said she quote, not it and opened the safe. But he said right as they started emptying it, a car pulled up at the gas bar and the driver started honking for service. Richard told the driver that the gas bar was out of gas and the car drove off, but they didn't realize that Yvonne had used this distraction to close the safe and lock

it. Terry testified that she then started screaming and saying she was going to tell her husband what was happening. He said that at this point he quote, got angry and mad and snapped as what I did and I killed her. End quote. Terry Kennedy had just confessed that he had been the one holding the knife and that it was he who had stabbed Yvonne Rulow to death. He said that Richard had to pull him off her. So that was his side of the story. He apologized to the Rulow family and said he never thought about

the consequences of his actions. He never considered the three children who lost their mother or the husband who lost his wife. But the crown prosecutor pointed out two things for the faint hope jury. First, the injuries Yvonne received didn't seem to match Terry Kennedy's description of events. Specifically, the ones the trial judge had concluded were evidence of torture, that series of small

V-shaped cuts on her neck and back, as well as the bruising and the black eye. Terry responded by saying he couldn't really remember what he did with the knife before Richard pulled him off. He only remembered that afterwards, the knife in his hand was twisted and bent. He suggested Yvonne's bruising might have been because he was leaning on her during the attack. leaning on her during the attack. The Crown's second point was about Terry Kennedy's version of events, that he basically got angry when Yvonne started screaming and not cooperating with them,

and he snapped and killed her in a rage. The Crown argued that his stated expectation that Yvonne would cooperate with their plan was implausible. Terry maintained there was no plan to kill Yvonne would cooperate with their plan was implausible. Terry maintained there was no plan to kill Yvonne, it was just supposed to be a robbery, but he agreed that he was guilty of causing her death while she was being confined. He continued with his testimony, telling the faint hope jury that after Richard pulled him off Yvonne Rulo's body, they exited the kiosk and drove back to their apartment building so they could both shower and change.

They hadn't thought about what to do afterwards, they didn't even have an alibi, so they decided to go out for breakfast once they'd cleaned up and talk about it then. They chose a restaurant opposite Nozzle's Gas Bar, presumably so they could keep an eye on what was going on over there. And that's exactly why they happened to be driving past, right at the time when Yvonne's sister Lorraine ran out onto the road and flagged them down. Terry Kennedy told the faint-hobe jury that he didn't think about the reality of what he'd done until he helped Lorraine get back into the kiosk and saw Yvonne's body on the ground. That's when it hit him and what prompted him to vomit around the corner and kick the gas pump, he said. Terry stated that he didn't know if he could forgive himself for what he'd done, and when asked about how he felt when listening to Yvonne's family members give their victim impact statements, he said,

It hurt. A parole officer testified that in the years after Yvonne Roulot's murder, Terry had insisted he was innocent, believing that it would help his appeal. After the appeals were denied, he continued to deny his own involvement, this time for the sake of his father, who reportedly preferred to believe his son had been wrongly convicted. The parole officer said that Terry feared his father's reaction at finding out the truth. But in 2004, two years before Terry was first eligible to apply to a faint hope jury, he

confessed to his family that he had participated in the murder of Yvonne Roulot. His father was reportedly devastated to hear this news. But even after this confession, Terry continued to claim that the trial witnesses had lied, that the murder was not planned, and that he should have only been convicted of second degree murder instead of first. The Crown pointed to the fact that Terry insisted

he was innocent for 13 years when he thought it would help his appeal, and he finally confessed not because he had been rehabilitated, but because he had an opportunity to apply for early release. It appeared to be strategic, so how can anyone know that he was telling the truth now? Terry Kennedy said that if he was lying, he would have said that his accomplice was the one who was actually responsible for the murder. The crown pointed out some aspects of Terry's side of the story that didn't make sense. If they really did believe that Yvonne would agree to cooperate with them and allow them to rob

the safe, then why did they decide to bring what Terry had described as the scariest-looking knife from his kitchen to the robbery. In fact, even in Terry's version of events, they made no attempt to persuade Yvonne to go along with their plan. They went straight from zero to violence, with Terry punching Yvonne in the stomach to push her down near the safe. Yet they still believed she would cooperate? In response, Terry said that he was never convinced that it was a solid plan.

But their rationale was that the money was insured, so it wasn't a loss to Nozzle's Gaspar or Yvonne personally. The implication was that she wouldn't have cared about being robbed by her employee. There was no mention about how she might have felt about being violently attacked by him beforehand. The Crown stated it was completely implausible that Terry Kennedy ever believed he and his accomplice could go to Nozzle's Gas Bar unmasked, rob an employer who knew them at knifepoint, order her not to go to the police, and believe that she would actually go along with it just because the money was insured.

Quote, even if they wore masks, Terry Kennedy was one of the kiosk employees and Richard Joyce was his frequent companion, she surely would have recognized them. The crown described Terry's story that he just snapped when he saw Yvonne Roulot wasn't cooperating with them, as just that, a story. Neither he nor his accomplice had any reason whatsoever to expect that she would cooperate with their plan. The implication was clear.

They never actually expected her to cooperate, because their plan to rob the gas bar included violence and murder. As for Terry Kennedy agreeing to be a pool bearer, the Crown suggested that the human thing would have been for him to say no, but he didn't do that. Quote, was this a person who has come to full grips with his crime? In closing arguments, Terry Kennedy's lawyer claimed he was now a different man after almost 20 years had gone by. Terry had taken programs in anger management, substance abuse counseling, cognitive

skills training and grief recovery programming. He had participated in many fundraising activities for good causes and had converted to Wicca, which was described as a nature-based religion with the key tenet to not harm people. He was interested in getting into business in that area if released. The Crown urged the Faint Hope jury to review the evidence from the first trial about the brutal violence and evidence of torture illustrated through Yvonne Roulot's injuries. Quote, this is far more violence than is necessary

to commit a robbery. This is far more violence than is necessary to commit a robbery. This is far more violence than is necessary to commit a murder. A faint hope jury has to be unanimous in deciding whether an inmate deserves an early chance at parole. This jury was unanimous in deciding that Terry Kennedy did not and went so far as to prevent him from applying under the faint hope clause again. He would have to wait another five years until 2016 to apply for regular parole.

Although it's difficult to understand why a person would confess to a crime they didn't commit, we know that false confessions do happen, most commonly because of abusive process by law enforcement, including the use of coercive interrogation tactics. So to avoid a wrongful conviction, it's considered best practice to qualify a confession with other markers of reliability. Every detail given should be carefully examined and compared to what is already known to investigators, including mundane details that only the person who actually committed the crime would know.

At Terry Kennedy's faint hope hearing, the Crown had pointed out multiple issues with the details of his confession. While it obviously wasn't the result of coercive interrogation tactics, it instead appeared to be motivated by his opportunity to apply for early release from prison. A parole board typically assesses the risk to the community if the offender were to be released. Rather than protests of innocence, the board wants to see that the offender were to be released. Rather than protests of innocence, the board wants to see that the offender

has taken accountability for the crime they were found guilty of at trial, that they have expressed remorse and reflected on their own risk factors for reoffending. Terry Kennedy had made an attempt, but it just didn't seem genuine or believable. And there remained that elephant in the room. Those overheard comments attributed to Richard Joyce alone that seemed to point towards a

sexual motive. Comments that strongly suggested Joyce played a far more active role in the violence perpetrated on Yvonne Roulot that day than Kennedy had, and further that he had enjoyed it. I never feel kind of pleasure like that before. That was great. When I give it to her, that was the best part. The faint hope hearing for Richard Joyce, now 43 years old, was scheduled to start two weeks later, on February 14th, 2011.

Yvonne Roulot's family would have to show up again, give their victim impact statements again and listen to all the details of the crime again, from the perspective of the other convicted offender. And this time they'd been told that the faint hope jury would likely view Joyce's application favorably because he was considered a model prisoner. Through good behavior, he had cascaded his way down to minimum security over the years. As implausible as Terry Kennedy's confession may have seemed, there was heightened concern that it might further increase Richard Joyce's chances of getting early parole.

But that's not what happened. Before the date arrived, the Kingston Week Standard suddenly reported that Richard Charles Joyce had dropped his faint hope application. He had been charged with 11 separate counts related to the abduction and sexual assault of a child in 1990, the year before Yvonne Roulot was murdered. The child had survived, but the crime had gone

completely unsolved for more than 20 years until now. With this massive development, Kingston residents started looking back at the details of the Nozzle's Gas Bar murder through a different lens, those unanswered questions about excessive violence and a suggestion of a sexual motive. It would only be the tip of the iceberg. The murder of Yvonne Roulot is only connected to this child survivor by a single threat. And because of the obvious sensitive nature of the subject

matter, we're not going to pull on that thread today. A lot of careful decisions have gone into how best to present this cluster of cases. So now, you have a choice. If you're especially sensitive to details of crimes committed against children, but still want to know how all of this ends up, please continue listening for a few more minutes past the credits and the closing theme music, and I'll give you a very high level and sanitized summary. For everyone else, the next episode is coming in about two weeks and begins with the story

of Kerry Kehoe, the survivor who contacted me last year. Thanks for listening and special thanks to Kerry Kehoe and Robert Rulo, the brother of Paul Rulo and spokesperson for the Rulo family. As well as a court document, this episode relied on the daily court reporting of Su Yanagisawa for the Kingston Wigs Standard. For the full list of resources and anything else you want to know about the podcast, including how to access ad-free episodes on our premium feeds, visit canadiantruecrime.ca. Audio editing was by Nico of the Inky Paul Print, with production assistance by Jesse from the Inky Poor Print. Carol Weinberg is our script consultant and we Talk of Dreams compose the theme songs.

Research, writing, narration and sound design was by me and the disclaimer was voiced by Eric Crosby. Keep listening through to the end of the theme music to hear a summary of the ending to this case, and for everyone else, I'll be back soon with the next Canadian True Crime episode. See ya then. So here's where this case ended up. In 1990, the year before Yvonne Roulot was murdered, a nine-year-old girl was abducted from Kingston at Knife Point, physically and sexually assaulted, and returned to the same neighbourhood two hours later. Her mother reported this to police immediately, and a DNA sample was retained, but there

was nothing to compare it to and the case went cold. Twenty years later, the DNA sample was resubmitted for testing. It was by this point 2010, and Canada's National DNA Databank had been in operation for a decade, populated with samples from inmates serving prison sentences. It returned a hit to the profile of Richard Charles Joyce, right before his faint hope hearing was due to start. 43-year-old Joyce was charged with 11 separate counts. Months later, he was charged again, this time in relation to two other extremely similar abduction and assault cases in Kingston. All three of the children involved

were returned to their neighborhoods and survived. Joyce pleaded guilty to all new charges. So here's the timeline of these three cases in relation to the murder of Yvonne Roulot. Joyce abducted the first nine-year-old girl in the summer of 1989. Early the following year, 1990, he abducted the other nine-year-old girl,

leaving the DNA that would eventually link him to all three cases. He abducted the third girl a few months later in the summer of 1990. This is Keri Kehoe, now a grown woman who reached out to me last year. At the time, she was 11 years old, and towards the end of her ordeal, she saw Joyce holding the knife in a way that led her to believe he intended to stab and kill her, but suddenly got distracted.

Joyce, together with Kennedy, robbed Nozzle's Gas Bar about eight months after that, in May of 1991. 34-year-old Yvonne Roulot was of course physically assaulted and tortured with a knife before her throat was cut and she was left to die. The judge had of course described it as far more violence than is necessary to commit a robbery or a murder. She also said the comments Joyce was overheard saying suggested a sexual motive, that he

played a far more active role in the violence than his accomplice had, and that he had enjoyed it. Kerry Kehoe believes that Joyce had been showing a clear passion of escalation, which would have continued had he not been apprehended soon after the murder of Yvonne Roulot. With these three new guilty pleas, Joyce was given a 10-year sentence and then a 12-year sentence, but it added no actual years because he was already serving life for the murder of Yvonne Roulot.

He was still eligible to apply for parole after serving 25 years. In 2023, both Richard Joyce and Terry Kennedy applied for parole. Both were denied. Thanks again for listening.