The Death of Donna Whalen

by Michael Winter

  Thursday he phoned Mrs Whalen and she was telling him down her way it was rainy. He said in our way it’s misty, but it’s not raining. She said, Mister isnt going to work. Sheldon said, I might take a shot in anyway. She said, Call back and let me know because I’m going into Bidgood’s and I’ll drop the keys of the shed in to you.

  Sheldon phoned her back and told her he wasnt going in, even though he had a lunch ready in the fridge. You wouldnt get a full day’s work anyway, she said.

  He watched the news. He phoned the Brother Murphy Centre. He was thinking about going to night school. He was talking to the vice- president down there and explained his situation to him and he took Sheldon’s name and told him to call back.

  He asked his father around dinnertime to give him a run in town. Before that, Sheldon phoned Joey Yetman and asked Joey would he go to a doctor for him. Sheldon’s father dropped him off around the school on LeMarchant Road and he walked down over a hill, right in front of it is Cabot Street Apartments. That’s where Joey lives. Sheldon knocked on his door and they went to the doctor’s office. They were sot down for about ten minutes. Joey went in and come out with a prescription. Sheldon went to the Royal Bank on Freshwater and changed his cheque, crossed the street to Trans Canada Drugs and paid for the prescription and got two bottles of Coke. He left the drug store, went to the police station and signed in. He has to do that once a month. He left there and went to Cathy Furneaux’s. There was no one home. The pills that he got were Robaxinal—this doctor wouldnt give Joey Atasols. It’s for a muscle spasm. One side is pink. The other side is white. The white side is what has the codeine. Sheldon broke them apart and took the codeine.

  He said to Joey, Listen do you want to go over and see this doctor over where Kelly used to be at? They left Cathy’s and walked over LeMarchant Road past the hospital. At the fire department they run into Cathy and Paul. Cathy said you won’t get nothing off this guy. Sheldon said to Joey give it a shot anyway and Sheldon left then with Cathy and his brother Paul and walked back to Cathy’s house.

  They come over LeMarchant Road and you go up Monkstown and that’ll take you to Cathy’s house. Cathy went on to the drug store and Sheldon and Paul picked up a six-pack of Labatt’s Blue. They went over to Cathy’s. Paul was looking for his drug card. Sheldon told him Cathy would be back in a few minutes and Paul said why dont we take a shot over to the 301 Club?

  Sheldon had about three beer gone and they walked over to the club. It was around three-thirty. Cheryl the bartender, she comes on between six and seven, Sheldon was still there when she come to work. They played pool and drank. There was Harvey Rowe and Eugene Driscoll and another guy with Eugene.

  About seven-thirty Sheldon and Paul went into their mother’s house with Eugene. They were just sitting there. Eugene was telling the stories and everybody was laughing at him. They left there and went back to the 301. Sheldon dont know where they went after that. He dont remember the rest of the evening.

  PAUL TROKE

  Paul Troke ended up picking up some more time and went back to jail. When he got out Sheldon was after coming home and he was dating Donna. Paul was staying with Cathy Furneaux and he saw Donna at Cathy’s. He used to get quite a lot of painkillers off her. He went to Donna’s a few occasions with Sheldon. The neighbours they would see him going in and out there.

  Sheldon and Donna they got along okay. Paul had a little bedsitting room in a boarding house on Victoria Street but he never used it. He wouldnt stay at Cathy’s all the time like he used to always be out partying, staying at different friends’ houses. He spent a lot of time mostly at the 301 Club but he used to go downtown a lot. He saw Donna downtown. Donna wore really tight jeans and at her house she wore tight spandex workout pants. She was in the habit of wearing sleeveless shirts, like strap shirts.

  He’s almost six-two with his sneakers on. Right now he weighs 246. Back then he was 180 pounds. He used to do a lot of drinking and he never used to eat that much.

  His hair is light brown. That’s his natural colour. When the sun gets at it in the summer it lightens a bit but it dont turn red. He gets it cut at Joe’s Barber Shop on Merrymeeting Road. Brush cut. One time it was quite busy he went up it was pretty near closing time, she had the door locked. Karen, she’s Joe’s daughter, she cut his hair. Somebody knocked at the door and Karen answered and Paul heard the person say no I’m not here for a haircut, I’m looking for my brother, and when Paul looked over it was Sheldon.

  Sheldon waited out on the step and Paul paid and left. They went down to Cathy’s.

  KAREN CLANCEY

  Karen did a cosmetology course and when she started with the business her father, Joe, taught her how to use the clippers. A spike is cut short around the ears, on the back, off the collar and very close to the head, a rounded shape. So it sticks up on top. It’s like a brush cut. She holds her hand tight to your scalp and cuts the hair along the whole way. Paul Troke’s hair is short and blond.

  Paul was her last customer that day. A knock came on the door, and she usually dont answer unless you keep knocking, so she just opened the curtain and told him they were closed. It was a sunny day. Sheldon said that he wanted to know if his brother Paul was there, and she said yes. And he wanted to know how long he was going to be and she said a couple of minutes.

  Paul Troke did come in earlier and they were very busy and he said he would come back later. When he came back he was just simply taking a chance. From what she sees if people need a haircut they sometimes come back a couple of times. It could be three times during that day if they need it done. There are no other barbershops close by on that street. His hair was just a little bit longer than what it was. She basically cleaned it up.

  Paul and Sheldon theyre both friendly. Paul’s hair is a lighter colour and shorter. Paul specifically asked for sprunch. It’s a hairspray. It freezes it in position. Sprunch is applied on a pump bottle. She just sprays it on.

  Sometimes people have designs put in the side of their head. Bear claws theyre called. For Paul Troke, she doesnt remember doing them. Without the sprunch it would be flat to the head then. It would look rounder to the shape of the head.

  A couple of days after she cut Paul’s hair, she saw him on the news and he was arrested for the armed robbery on Water Street. She knows she cut his hair just previous to this because her husband commented on what a good haircut it was.

  SHELDON TROKE

  Sheldon got dropped off out in town. He went to Cathy Furneaux’s to see if Paul was there. Paul’s girlfriend Trisha was there and Trisha said that he was gone to get a haircut and Sheldon asked where did he go, was it down to Topcuts or up to the top of Field Street, and Trisha said she thinks at the top of Field Street. So he went there and tried the door. The door was locked. There was curtains or blinds in the window so he knocked on the window and a girl come over and she told him they were closed and he said, I was wondering if Paul Troke was there. She said hang on, and so then she turned around and said yes, and Sheldon said, Tell him I’ll be waiting out here. Paul come out and he asked him if he had any Atasols or Tylenols and he said he never had none. He said he might be getting some later and Sheldon told him he was going to a meeting and he said drop back after the meeting. So he left then and walked to the meeting.

  Paul had a brush cut. At least once a week Paul’s into a fight downtown. He has short hair so when he’s fighting, no one can grab his hair.

  From going to AA and NA, Sheldon met people that went there for years and they still drank and used drugs but eventually they come off it and they been off it for years. You can go there to a meeting and the people will tell you just because you slip or youre still using, keep coming back. Someday you might get something. There was times he went there using drugs.

  CHES HEDDERSON

  This is the police’s theory: Donna dropped Sheldon off at his mother’s that night. Then she went to Kim Parrott’s, and on her way home visited the Wendy’s restaurant drive-thru. She had a brief discu
ssion with Ruth Vivian on her way into the house. Donna climbed the stairs, changed into her nightgown and ate her chicken salad. Sheldon Troke returned to Donna’s, waited in the Empire area for Ms Whalen to return home and an altercation occurred. Contact was made with Paul Troke at Cathy Furneaux’s. Paul aided Sheldon in cleaning up and they both left the scene. Sheldon Troke returned home and went to work the next morning.

  Ches Hedderson has no idea as to how Sheldon would have gotten back to Donna’s. He may have used his mother’s red Corsica. Paul Troke didnt have a vehicle. He either walked or got a taxi from Cathy’s.

  The police recreated what happened at the Edicotts’. Ches Hedderson had Keith Edicott sit at the end of the chesterfield and Ches went outside and knocked on the door and Mabel Edicott opened it. Keith could not see Ches’s face because his mother was blocking it. The only part of Ches that he could see was his hair.

  This was something that Ches Hedderson took upon himself to do. A spur-of-the-moment thing as he was there speaking with these people. Both Keith and his mother said the person who knocked on the door was no shorter than Inspector Hedderson.

  PAUL TROKE

  On Thursday, the day before Donna’s death, he was up at the 301 Club, this club that he hung out at every single day. Sheldon came in through the back door. There is two doors to the club, a front door and a back door, but the front door to the upstairs is another part of the club and dont be used that often so everybody uses the back door. Eugene Driscoll was there and him and Sheldon went into the bathroom to resolve an argument. Everything got straightened up and they were drinking and playing pool for a few hours. It was after supper when the three of them left. They went into their mother’s house. This guy Eugene is a pretty comical guy and they sat around and were laughing and joking for an hour. Eugene was driving so he dropped Paul and Sheldon back at the club and they stayed there until quarter to twelve. It was starting to empty out by then, most of the people were gone and the club closes a little after twelve. They still werent done drinking so they decided to go downtown. They were buzzed or stoned, whatever you want to call it. Sheldon was well on there. They got out of the taxi in front of the Sundance Saloon and there is a hot-dog cart there and Sheldon wanted to get something to eat. Paul walked into Sam Shades to see who was there. He came back out and looked down by the hot-dog stand where he last seen Sheldon and he wasnt there and he looked up the street and couldnt see him anywhere. He saw him no more that night. Paul ended up staying at Cathy’s.

  Paul can’t recall seeing Sheldon on Friday. He went back to the 301. He spent all day right up until it was close to twelve when he left there. Then he went to Field Street and drank some more and went down to Sam Shades and drank with Joey Yetman and his girlfriend. They were staying at a halfway house so they had to be in at twelve, like when Paul got there they were late and when he was going in they were coming out to be back at the halfway house.

  He wasnt feeling too good and he was really drunk. He went into the bathroom and this friend had some cocaine. Paul done some in the bathroom but he also got some off him. In one of them stalls on top of the flush box. Then he rolled up a joint and went outside and smoked it. He wanted to get some air, it’s only a small club and it was packed. Paul was talking to a couple of people outside and then he went back into the club and he still wasnt feeling good because he was drunk and he was starting to spin around. He was there another half-hour maybe. He left and started walking towards Gullivers looking for a taxi. He got a cab and went home to Freshwater Road. It was before quarter after two. Robert Furneaux was there. Paul done some more cocaine and Robert was watching a movie on TV. He wasnt really drunk any more because the cocaine was starting to take effect. So he was feeling a bit better and wanted something else to drink, so he left the house. Right across is a club. He walked up there to the top of the sidewalk there by Leo’s Restaurant and you got a plain view of the club and it wasnt open, at least there was no lights on, so he went back in the house.

  From Cathy’s door to Leo’s Restaurant is from here to that wall, maybe seven feet. When Paul came back in he went upstairs and put on a pair of jogging pants and the jeans that he had on he flicked them in the washer. He sat down in the chair and then Cathy came home. The door was unlocked. They were talking for a few minutes, he can’t remember what they were talking about, it’s hard to get any sense out of Cathy when she’s drinking. She laid down on the couch and Robert went to bed and Paul went upstairs and ended up going to bed too. He did not get up through the night. He had a key to the house and lost it.

  It didnt seem like he was asleep all that long and Cathy woke him up and told him that Donna had committed suicide. There is a lot of stories goes around up there and you never know what to believe and Paul didnt believe it and was still half-asleep. She woke him up again around noon. He got up and went downstairs and got a shower and a shave. He went up to the 301 Club. He was having a few drinks, trying to get rid of his hangover. The bartender called him to the bar—he was wanted on the phone. It was his sister, Iris. The police want to question you. Get ahold of them. He hung up and got the number to the police station off the bartender and called over. He told the woman who answered the phone to connect him with Major Crimes. An officer come on the line and asked Paul if he could come over. He had no transportation so two officers came to pick him up at the back door of the club. They never come in, they stay out there and barmp the horn.

  They took photographs of his hands and upper body and face. He was at the station about an hour. Then they dropped him back off at the 301 Club.

  A few days later he gave them blood and hair samples. Soon after he bought a vehicle. He paid five hundred dollars for it. It was only a junker, like something to get you from A to B. He drove it out to Glovertown and it broke down. Trisha was with him. Paul dont know much about cars so he didnt even try to find out what was wrong, he just turned the key a few times and it wouldnt go and left it there. He gave the car to George Bennett.

  He got back to St John’s by stealing a car. Probably a mile down the road from where they left his car at a gas station. The keys were there and that. He and Trisha never went from car to car, there was a car there and they looked in and the keys were in it.

  TELEVISION

  Donna Whalen was brutally murdered, thirty-one knife wounds to her chest, she was found face down on her living room floor partially covered by a blanket, a pair of underwear twisted around her neck. Police believe at least one of the woman’s children saw her being killed. The police also have their suspects. Police first arrived on the scene later that morning after a frantic call to 911 from a child. In fact, they believe two people may have been involved in the young woman’s murder. One person that killed Donna Whalen, the other helped wipe the place clean. Police are also looking for a search warrant to comb the second man’s car, the car pictured here, for evidence.

  AGNES WHALEN AND PAT VIVIAN WI RETAP

  Agnes Whalen: Did you see the news?

  Pat Vivian: Yes, my love.

  Do you know who owned the car?

  That belongs to Paul Troke. Donna was up talking to him. It was just coincident that I happened to know the car and describe the young fellow that was in the car.

  They said Sharon seen him. Sharon didnt see him.

  They didnt say Sharon.

  It was a child.

  One of the youngsters. They shouldnt have said that over the news anyway. Because that’s putting that girl in danger saying that.

  Well they must have something in the car.

  They found that car four hundred miles out of town.

  They got two suspects and one cleaned up and the other one killed her.

  When they told me how many times she was stabbed.

  Thirty-one times.

  I walked out by the door and my son said youre all shook up about this now and I said yes Tom I am. I hope they skins them alive.

  And it’s something like Sheldon Troke would do. Is he still under
suspicion?

  He’s still locked up.

  They are trying to put it off because if they charges him now his lawyer will get ahold of all the statements.

  I was walking over to the doctor and one of the sergeants asked me where I was going and I said to get me vitamin B needle and I said I heard Sheldon was out. He said no and the best of it is he aint getting out no more.

  Put the two of them away for life and they’ll do a good thing.

  When I was at the doctor’s I walked upstairs I walked into Sheldon’s sister, Iris.

  Dont you go talking to them. Theyre all dangerous. I think Iris is dangerouser than any of them.

  Iris said there’s rumours going around that Sheldon killed her and Paul cleaned up. Now it comes over the news today. So how did Iris know it before the news?

  Well theyre going to make an arrest and if you see the car around there. Gary Bemister phoned me and told me that in two weeks’ time.

  All the furniture got to be moved out.

  Pat, that won’t be long coming out. I’m going to put that in the basement.

  You should sell it and put some money away in a trust for the children.

  The children.

  How’s Sharon.

  I’m glad she didnt hear it over the radio. She didnt see nothing only she came out and see her mother on the floor dead. They must have cleaned up because the police said it was cleaned up. They must have given her an awful torturing that night.

  KAREN CLANCEY

  One day a man, very polite, called up and said, Do you remember Paul Troke. He has a gold ring with a dollar sign on it. Yes, she said, but I dont remember the ring. Paul’s been in the shop a few times, she’s cut his hair, last time a short spike haircut. Who am I talking to, she said and he said Sheldon Troke. Do you know if it was a Monday or Tuesday and she said well we’re closed on Mondays.