TORONTO SUN
May 27, 1996

John Schmied

TORONTO - The hunt for a triple killer has become a chase for a vehicle.

A van-type vehicle described to police as having left the scene of one of last Monday's three murders is the best lead police have to catching the killer of three prostitutes.

"We're getting a fair response about similar-looking vehicles ... we have officers out tracking down" the tips, Metro Police homicide Det.-Sgt. Jim McDermott said yesterday.

The narrow, shiny-red, van-type machine with square headlights and a pink-colored roof light was seen by a citizen leaving the scene where one prostitute was shot in the head.

Brenda Ludgate, 25, a Parkdale-area hooker, was found minutes before midnight on Victoria Day in a parking lot on King St., just west of Bathurst St.

Shawn "Junior" Keegan, 19, was found two minutes later in a stairwell to an underground parking lot of an apartment building on Homewood Ave., in the Wellesley-Sherbourne Sts. area.

Tom "Deana" Wilkinson, 31, was found nine hours later behind a building virtually across the street from where Keegan's body was found.

Vigil

Transvestites, sex-trade workers, uniformed Salvation Army workers, and controversial, Ryerson professor/hooker Gerald Hannon came to mourn.

"I think we're trying to find some strength in numbers, the will to go on," said Portia, a hooker.

Police patrolled the vigil, which included the hymn Amazing Grace and a poetry reading.

Anyone with information about the case or the vehicle is urged to contact police at (416) 808-7425, 808-7400, or Crime Stoppers at 222-TIPS.

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