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Manitoba woman describes what it's like to be related to a killer

Manitoba woman describes what it's like to be related to a killer

The sister of a man who made headlines for murder in 1978 has come forward to CBC News with her story of alienation.

Maureen Morrish told Information Radio's Marcy Markusa about how her life changed forever when her brother Randy killed a man in Winnipeg.

Morrish remembers that she was 20 years old when she got a phone call from her other brother, telling her that Randy was in the news and that he had committed a murder.

"My mom was in the kitchen and I said, 'Randy's in jail. He killed a man.' We had no contact with the authorities at all," Morrish said in an interview.

"My poor mom. She was cooking in the kitchen, I remember, and she fainted on the kitchen floor. Just fell on the floor and sobbed. It changed all of our lives forever."

Not criminally responsible

"He claimed that he murdered the fellow because he felt that the fellow was the devil, and that there were certain signs he had received that indicated that the devil had told him to kill this fellow," Morrish recalled.

From what Morrish knows about her brother's case, she said it took place in a rooming house in Winnipeg, where he was living at the time.

She said from her brother's accounts, the victim had made sexual advances toward Randy.

Morrish said she thinks the man was "grooming" her brother, which included buying him presents such as all-new hockey equipment.

"My brother was struggling with his sexuality at the time," Morrish said, "and he felt that this wasn't right, so he took the equipment back to the Canadian Tire and the amount that he received, then he went and he purchased a rifle. And so it worked out to exact change, so he thought that was a sign."

Her brother then proceeded to use the rifle to kill the man.

Randy spent 14 years in mental institutions after being found not criminally responsible. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Tune into Information Radio on Tuesday, April 21, at 7:50 a.m. to hear the full interview live with Maureen Morrish.

Maureen Morrish remembers trying countless times to try and get her brother out on leave, for Christmas or family events, but each time she was unsuccessful.

"It wasn't until many, many years later that a friend of mine was working in the hospital and did a little bit of poking around for me, and came up with the information that the reason that he couldn't get these family leaves is because he kept this fellow's body under his bed for three days," Morrish said.

"That thought still haunts me to this day. It's very creepy. My brother was a sick man, very, very sick to do something like that. It's a chilling thought."

Randy took his own life after being released from care. Morrish and her family found out, again, from the media.

"On the picture in the Sun, the Sun newspaper was the picture of my brother laying there dead with a blanket over him, with his boot hanging out, and I recognized his boot. That was pretty bad," she said.

'It wasn't fair'

"I remember taking my brother when he was in the old Public Safety Building, taking him some fruit; he liked his fruit. He never received any of the packages that I took him," Morrish recalled.

She said she and her family were always treated poorly, as if they were the criminals.

"We weren't even informed when the court date was," she said. "We were just completely left in the dark, like we were invisible."

She also recalls the whispers and the speculation from everyone, from strangers to colleagues.

"It wasn't fair. We suffered as a family, it changed all of our lives. It certainly changed my mother's life. She felt responsible because her son and killed another mother's child," Morrish said.

"I remember certain dark periods in my life that I did feel like killing somebody. You know, I could have. I could have gone down that road because my brother is a murderer, maybe I'm a murderer…. My brother is insane, maybe I'm insane — we kind of struggled with that."

"Because my brother was sick and he was a criminal and he committed that crime, that doesn't mean that we're bad, that we should be treated any less than anybody else," Morrish said.

"It's so sad. We're all people, we all have feelings."

Morrish has since committed her life to working with youth in Manitoba's social system to help others avoid the pitfalls her brother had fallen victim to. She says in a way, she see that as his legacy.

"It's been difficult, but I am who I am as a result of it and that's OK."