| In Memory of.. Joe Grozelle |
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| CHATHAM -- Investigators are wrong if they think Joe Grozelle -- a Royal Military College cadet from the Ridgetown area -- killed himself, his father insists. In an extensive interview with The Free Press, Ron Grozelle said he has started his own probe into the death of his 21-year-old son, whose body was pulled from Lake Ontario Nov. 13, three weeks after he went missing from his dorm room at the Kingston college, where he was a model student and a member of the basketball team.
While police haven't said Joe Grozelle died by his own hand, "The way the story is now, it's almost like, 'Poor Joe, he didn't know how to swim and if he just jumped in the water, he'd go down like a rock and that's the story,' " Grozelle said. "I don't think that's the story." Joe Grozelle had passed his military swim test, which measured skills including an ability to tread water for three minutes, his father said. Ron Grozelle said too many questions remain unanswered. Among them: - Why did it take almost 12 hours before anyone reported his son missing? - Was a fight between three cadets, which broke out two days after Grozelle disappeared, connected to the case? - Did the fight silence someone before they could come forward with information? - Did his son overdose on drugs he may have been given and his body then thrown into the frigid waters to make it appear a suicide? - Why didn't investigators give a more detailed description of the clothing Grozelle was wearing when last seen? - Why was his son so fully dressed -- not casually, as might be expected for the hour -- when he was last seen working on school assignment in the wee hours of the morning in his dorm? He was seen dressed in a black sweatshirt, blue golf shirt, khaki pants and new suede shoes. - What happened to the sweater and golf shirt Grozelle was wearing when he disappeared, which were missing when his body was pulled from the water? - If Grozelle took off his sweater and golf shirt, why haven't they been found? - Why aren't investigators looking for the clothing? - Why didn't military investigators immediately use heat-sensing equipment in their search for the cadet, instead of waiting until a week later? "I may not get the total answers but I'm going to at least try," Grozelle said before driving to Kingston for the fourth time since his son's body was found. |