As Travis Baumgartner is questioned, police piece together what happened

While Edmonton police piece together the sequence of events that left three armoured-car employees dead and one seriously wounded, a look into the past reveals big heists aimed at armoured cars or their facilities are often inside jobs.

Travis Baumgartner, the 21-year-old suspect in last Friday's deadly ATM robbery on the University of Alberta campus, remains in an RCMP cell in Langley, southeast of Vancouver on Monday. Baumgartner was snared Saturday night by U.S. border guards as he tried to enter the United States. Baumgartner faces three counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder.

G4S Cash Solutions Canada guards Michelle Shegelski, 26, Eddie Rejano, 39, and Brian Ilesic, 35, were shot dead at the university's HUB Mall early Friday morning as they were replenishing an ATM. Another guard, Matthew Schuman, is in critical condition in hospital but improving, the Edmonton Journal reported.

When Baumgartner was arrested, U.S. border officials said he was found with $330,000 in Canadian cash. His Ford pickup, using his mother's licence plates, was flagged by automatic scanners as he tried to cross.

Homicide detectives are questioning Baumgartner and going over his pickup truck for evidence. Edmonton Police Service Chief Rod Knecht said Baumgartner was co-operating with police and could be back in Edmonton by Wednesday.

The Journal also reported investigators searched the suburban Sherwood Park home Baumgartner shares with his mother. The court filing to obtain the warrant revealed they were looking for guns, ammunition, shell casings, a sample of his DNA and evidence Baumgartner might have researched the heist on the Internet.

[Related: Suspect in deadly armoured car heist co-operating ]

The web reveals insiders often play a role in armoured-car company robberies.

Allen Pace, a Dunbar Armoured safety inspector, masterminded the theft of US$18.9 million with four accomplices in 1997.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Pace provided a floor plan of Dunbar's depot, photos and a key, as well as showing them how to evade surveillance cameras.

The crew entered the depot by a side door after midnight, tied up night-shift employees with duct tape and used bolt cutters to open and ransack the cages holding the cash.

Police, aided by the FBI and Internal Revenue Service, took two years to track down the robbers and recovered only about $5 million of the money, mostly in the form of homes and other assets. Pace got 17 years in prison.

Also in 1997, Loomis Fargo driver and vault supervisor David Ghannt stole $17.3 million from the company's Charlotte, North Carolina vault in an overnight raid.

According to a historical account on Maxim.com, Ghantt enlisted Steve Chambers, a friend of former employee Kelly Campbell, as an accomplice.

[Related: Woman who trained with accused in deadly armoured car heist thankful she quit]

Security footage caught Ghantt loading up a van with the cash, most of which he left with Chambers while he fled to Mexico. Chambers was supposed to wire small amounts of money to him for living expenses until the heat was off, when he planned to return.

But in a movie-like twist, Chambers had no intention of sending Ghantt any money. Instead he planned to have Ghantt killed and had Kelly seduce Ghantt into thinking she loved him.

The FBI investigation eventually led to Chambers and finally Ghantt, who was arrested in Mexico in 1998. In all, eight people were indicted in the robbery and nine others with money laundering. Ghantt got more than seven years in prison while Chambers received more than 11 years.

Security consultant Claudiu Popa of Toronto told the Journal deadly armoured-car heists such as the one in Edmonton are very rare.

"Generally speaking when armoured trucks are attacked there is no intent to hurt anybody, so this is a distinct and different incident," he said.