Soldier charged with murdering wife to remain active member of Canadian Armed Forces pending review
Drake Fenton, Postmedia News | 13/08/04 10:25 PM ET
On Friday, Ottawa police arrested Howard Richmond. He has been charged with his wife's murder.
Ottawa Citizen fileOn Friday, Ottawa police arrested Howard Richmond. He has been charged with his wife's murder.
Charged with murder in the death of his wife, Howard Richmond remains an active member of the military pending a Canadian Armed Forces review that could result in the warrant officer’s suspension from regular duties.
Richmond, 50, of Winchester, Ont., south of Ottawa, was charged Saturday with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of his wife, Melissa Richmond, 28.
“When an incident, a special circumstance, or a professional deficiency occurs that calls into question the member’s suitability for continued service, an administrative review will be initiated to ensure the most appropriate career administrative action is taken,” said Cpt. Joanna Labonte, a Department of National Defence spokeswoman.
Labonte could not say whether Richmond would be suspended or whether any suspension would be with or without pay.
She did say: “The Canadian Armed Forces hold their members to a very high standard of conduct and performance.”
Richmond, a member of the Canadian Armed Forces since 1988, is a geomatics technician currently employed at the Integrated Personnel Support Centre in Ottawa. He has also worked with the Mapping and Charting Establishment.
Richmond has told the media that he was receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and that he has done six overseas tours in Afghanistan and other conflict zones.
One mission in which he took part in Afghanistan involved collecting “unclassified high-resolution colour stereo imagery.” He wrote a first-person account of the mission for the 2009 edition of Canadian Military Mapper, a newsletter published by the Mapping & Charting Establishment.
The mission began around the Easter long weekend in 2009. Richmond writes that advance teams set up instruments to aid in the mapping process throughout Afghanistan, including Kandahar Airfield, Camp Bastion and three southern districts: Tarin Kowt, Qalat, Lashkar Gah.
“I carried seven knives and got to fire an American M-60 (machine gun) from a Chinook . . . and we get paid for this!” he said.
Richmond writes that teams were in the air for up to 13 hours, collecting images approximately every 10 seconds. Their efforts helped in the mapping of 100,000 square kilometres of Afghanistan.
“They say when you do a job well, no one remembers, and if you mess it up you will never be forgotten,” he concludes. “The crew that made up the mission did what should be forgotten, but hopefully will be remembered. We were critically short on training and preparation time, deficient in equipment, but with more morale than we knew what to do with; we surmounted every obstacle as they arose.”
A soldier who served with Richmond in Afghanistan described him as a good team leader for younger troops. He said Richmond was never overly aggressive, showed no signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and did not share any war stories suggesting he had been in a serious firefight.
After the tour ended, the soldier did not talk to Richmond again. The soldier, who does not want to be named, said Richmond went back to Afghanistan in 2010 or 2011. The soldier does not know details of that tour.
Paul Champ, an Ottawa lawyer familiar with legal proceedings involving members of the military, said a big question is whether Richmond will be suspended with or without pay during the trial. An Armed Forces member convicted of murder could expect to be discharged from the military, Champ said, but would not lose accumulated pension benefits.
Richmond reported his wife missing on July 24. Her body was found three days later with multiple stab wounds in a ravine near the South Keys Shopping Centre in Ottawa.
He appeared in court Saturday to hear the first-degree murder charge and is scheduled is appear in court again Tuesday by video link.
With files from Natascia Lypny, Postmedia News
