Homicide investigators looking for 13-year-old Marrisa Shen鈥檚 killer appear to have targeted Middle Eastern men living in the Lower Mainland in a DNA dragnet.
The Burnaby teen鈥檚 body was found in Central Park on July 18, 2017.
Fourteen months later, police arrested and charged a 28-year-old Syrian national, Ibrahim Ali, with her murder.
The RCMP鈥檚 Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has been tight-lipped about the techniques that led them to Ali, but the NOW has learned numerous Middle Eastern men living in the Lower Mainland 鈥� some of whom came to Canada to escape persecution in totalitarian regimes 鈥� were called up seemingly randomly and asked to provide voluntary DNA samples in relation to the killing.
鈥淚 was thinking, 鈥榃hy me?鈥欌�� Burnaby resident Ayub Faek told the NOW. 鈥淲hen they came, I asked them, 鈥榃hy me?鈥� and they say, 鈥楴ot only you; many people.鈥� I said, 鈥楧o you have clue like about why, for example, me?鈥� Maybe they have clue. They didn鈥檛 tell me. They didn鈥檛 tell me anything.鈥�
鈥楩or future records鈥�
Faek, who is Kurdish, came to Canada in the early 2000s, after fleeing Saddam Hussein鈥檚 Iraq as a refugee.
鈥淲e were working for a political organization underground and we run away from there,鈥� he said.
He said he was unnerved when he got a call from IHIT investigators who seemed to know everything about him.
鈥淚 was nervous,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I鈥檓 sure I didn鈥檛 do anything. 鈥� This first time in my life I do this kind of interview or investigation. Never been in court or never even ask by police for anything in my life.鈥�
Investigators called him up out of the blue, he said, and asked to see him for an interview.
At his house, they questioned him about his work, his visits to the park and Shen鈥檚 murder.
They also flashed a photo of Shen at him, he said.
鈥淭hey show you a picture, to see what鈥檚 your reaction,鈥� he said.
They left with a sample of blood from his finger.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want to do that, OK, and you are no happy, but you have to say yes,鈥� he said about the sample. 鈥淵ou should do whatever they want. By law, I don鈥檛 know anything. If I knew anything, I鈥檇 try it.鈥�
Faek lives near Central Park, but he said he鈥檚 heard from other men in his community living as far away as North Vancouver and Coquitlam who were also asked to provide DNA samples.
Faek鈥檚 friend, Ariyan Fadhil, another Kurd who fled Iraq in the early 2000s, lives in North Burnaby.
IHIT called him up while he was working in West Vancouver.
They asked to see him that day and questioned him in a van during his lunch break, he said.
鈥淚 was questioning in my mind, 鈥榃hy they are asking me?鈥� I鈥檓 not living in the area,鈥� he said.
Like Faek, Fadhil said he didn鈥檛 feel like he had much choice about the DNA sample.
鈥淚 knew that, if they want, they鈥檙e going to get an order from court or something, I don鈥檛 know, to take it from me, so that鈥檚 why I gave it,鈥� he said.
The men said IHIT promised the DNA samples would be destroyed after the investigation wrapped up, but both are skeptical.
鈥淚 was thinking that maybe they just want to collect DNA from people from Middle East for future records,鈥� Fadhil said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what I thought. I still believe that. They said they鈥檙e going to destroy it, but I don鈥檛 believe it.鈥�
鈥淚f you work in political, you think about many things, not only the point,鈥� Faek said. 鈥淵ou think they do many things behind this or under this.鈥�
He said he felt singled out when IHIT contacted him and, at first, didn鈥檛 want to tell anyone about being asked for his DNA.
He was relieved, he said when he found out how many other men in his community had been asked.
鈥業nherently coercive鈥�
But that raises concerns of its own, according to Abby Deshman, director of the criminal justice program for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
鈥淚t raises questions about racial profiling and the appropriateness of widespread DNA collection from a systemic perspective,鈥� she told the NOW.
Despite being 鈥渧oluntary,鈥� Deshman said people subjected to the DNA requests find them 鈥渋nherently coercive鈥� because people who refuse then become suspects regardless of whether or not any other evidence links them to the crime.
鈥淲e question the validity of the consent,鈥� Deshman said.
That鈥檚 especially true for vulnerable or marginalized groups, including new Canadians and refugees, she said.
She pointed to a similar case in 2013, when the Ontario Provincial Police conducted a DNA sweep of 100 racialized migrant workers in Tillsonberg, Ont.
A sexual assault victim there had described her assailant as black with what she thought was a Jamaican accent, so the OPP requested DNA samples from 100 racialized workers in the area 鈥� but many of the men did not match the height or age of the suspect. The only similarity was their skin colour.
The incident sparked a human rights complaint and an investigation by the Office of the Independent Police Director, who found the sweep had been 鈥渙verly broad.鈥�
The human rights complaint is ongoing.
Deshman said it is 鈥渄eeply concerning鈥� that Faek and Fadhil felt they couldn鈥檛 say no to the DNA request.
For the sample-taking to be truly voluntary, she said police need to do more to make individual rights and freedoms under Canadian law clear to people who have come from countries with very different criminal justice systems.
Toward that end, the CCLA wants to see DNA sweeps subject to independent oversight.
鈥淪o far, that鈥檚 not what the law requires,鈥� Deshman said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 think they should never be used as investigative tools. There are serious crimes, and there are times when you can legitimately engage in this kind of police investigation, but we think they should absolutely be reserved for very select cases and that there should be oversight.鈥�
That oversight should include accountability around the retention and destruction of the DNA samples.
鈥淭hat is a core concern of many people who are subject to these requests,鈥� Deshman said.
鈥楴o further comments鈥�
IHIT wouldn鈥檛 comment on its policy for the collection, retention and destruction of voluntary DNA samples.
Media spokesperson Cpl. Frank Jang would only say that IHIT 鈥渟trictly adheres to Canadian law and RCMP policy with respect to the handling of DNA exhibits.鈥�
During its 14-month murder investigation, IHIT said more than 1,300 residents in the Central Park area were canvassed, more 600 interviews were conducted and more than 2,000 persons of interest were identified and subsequently eliminated.
IHIT wouldn鈥檛 say whether those 2,000 persons of interest were men from the Middle East who were asked for their DNA.
鈥淥ur police investigation is complete鈥� Jang told the NOW in an emailed statement. 鈥淚t's been turned over to the courts. There will be no further comments provided.鈥�
IHIT would not confirm whether or not a DNA sweep had been conducted, why so many Middle Eastern men across Metro Vancouver were asked to provide samples, how they were identified or whether the RCMP provided any support to men who 鈥� after escaping oppression and state-sanctioned violence in places like Syrian 鈥� might have been traumatized by being singled-out seemingly randomly by police to provide DNA for a murder investigation.
(The NOW learned of one former refugee who thought he was being targeted because he is suing someone with family in the RCMP.)
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What did police find on scene?
小蓝视频 Institute of Technology DNA expert Dean Hildebrand said it is possible investigators found DNA at the crime scene and had it analyzed for ethnicity, much like what happens when people send a sample to a business like ancestry.com.
鈥淩elatively geographically, it鈥檚 likely that in the Middle East your DNA profiles are going to align more closely than, say, to sub-Saharan Africa or China or European ethnicities,鈥� he told the NOW.
Investigators may have canvassed Middle Eastern men for DNA because a crime scene sample indicated the killer or his family were from that region.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a common test, though, in the forensic realm,鈥� Hildebrand said. 鈥淭he RCMP don鈥檛 do that routinely. They don鈥檛 have that test in-house for ethnicity.鈥�
Hildebrand said he鈥檚 not surprised IHIT has been tight-lipped about the sweep, as police are protective of their investigative techniques.
When asked if the RCMP might be trying to dodge controversy by not making the sweep public, he said that was a question for police.
鈥淭here鈥檚 always sensitivities around privacy, but again, these are voluntary samples,鈥� Hildebrand said, 鈥渁nd they can say yes, they can say no. That鈥檚 their right.鈥�
That鈥檚 not how it felt to the Faek and Fadhil, though.
鈥淚t just raise more questions, so you have to give it right away,鈥� Fadhil said.
Faek agreed.
鈥淲e are new to Canadian life,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 know anything about this.鈥�
A brief history of DNA sweeps
In a DNA sweep or dragnet, police may ask hundreds, even thousands of people from a particular demographic or living in a certain area for blood or saliva in the hope of finding a match with DNA found at the crime scene.
The nature of the crime sometimes determines the target group, as it did in the first DNA sweep in 1987 in Leicestershire, England.
Investigating the brutal rape and murder of two 15-year-old girls, police there asked 5,500 local men to volunteer blood or saliva samples, leading to the arrest and conviction of local baker Colin Pitchfork.
Pitchfork had actually convinced someone else to masquerade as him to give blood, but he was found out when that person bragged about it at a pub later.
The target group might also be identified by a victim鈥檚 description of a criminal, as in an Ontario sexual assault that saw 100 racialized worker canvassed after the victim described her assailant as black with a Jamaican accent.
Even if the perpetrator doesn鈥檛 agree to provide a voluntary DNA sample, a sweep helps police by narrowing the number of possible suspects.
In 2003, police investigating the rape and murder of 10-year-old Holly Jones put software developer Michael Briere under surveillance after he refused to provide a sample.
He was arrested and convicted after they retrieved pop cans and straws he threw away and matched DNA found on them with DNA recovered from under Jones鈥� fingernails.
With advances in genetic science, a newer, more controversial technique, called forensic DNA phenotyping, has now also made it possible to establish some of a suspect鈥檚 visible characteristics and ancestry by comparing crime-scene DNA samples to human genetic information from various regions, such as Africa or Asia.
A DNA sweep can then be conducted of a group using that information.
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