Early on Sunday, September 6, 1987, police went to a house on Miller Street in the Davenport and Weston Roads area of Toronto. A woman had telephoned to say they would find a body there, the Toronto Star reported.
In a basement apartment they found Marlene Ann Collins, 34, with a plastic grocery bag tied over her head. At sentencing, the Star reported that this was the basement apartment of the two women accused of killing her, and that Collins had been killed the day before she was found.
Collins lived on Arleta Drive in Downsview and worked as a truck driver, the prosecutor told the court. Both papers identified her by her job. The Star called her “a female truck driver.” The Globe and Mail called her “a 34-year-old woman truck driver.”
Police said little at first. On September 13 the Star reported that for a week police had refused to release the autopsy results, and had said at one point that they did not know whether it was a murder.
The autopsy showed that Collins had suffocated. On Saturday, September 12, the Globe and Mail reported, police charged two Miller Street women with first-degree murder. They were Donna Marie Turner, 37, and Marilyn Florence Arnesen, 34. Police told the Star that Arnesen worked as a garbage collector and Turner was unemployed.
The rest of the account came out at the sentencing hearing on December 18, 1987.
Prosecutor Kathy Hawke told the court that Arnesen and Collins had once been in a lesbian relationship. She said it was “rife with difficulties.” Collins “was assaulted frequently,” Hawke said, and eventually left. Hawke said that shortly afterward the Children’s Aid Society removed a child from Arnesen’s custody, and Arnesen blamed Collins.
Defence lawyer Ed Schofield told the court that Turner and Arnesen were lovers and that Collins “was sometimes involved amorously with them.” The Star reported that the three frequently socialized together.
After the killing, Hawke said, Turner and Arnesen used Collins’ bank card to withdraw cash from an automatic teller machine and left town. From there they telephoned several people in Toronto and talked about the killing. Hawke quoted Arnesen as saying on one call, “We are really sorry.” On another, she said, Turner admitted that she and Arnesen were equally responsible for the death. The Star reported that police investigated after the pair phoned from Montreal and told friends.
The court heard about both women’s records. In 1977, Turner, using the name Lawlor, had been sentenced to three years in prison for manslaughter in the killing of her husband. Arnesen had previous convictions for armed robbery. Defence lawyer Harry Doan told the court that Arnesen had been raped by her stepfather when she was seven. Doan said Turner stayed home and kept house while Arnesen worked as a garbage collector.
Turner and Arnesen pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder. In the prisoners’ box they briefly held hands. Justice John O’Driscoll of the Ontario Supreme Court sentenced each to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 15 years, five years more than the minimum. He prohibited both from possessing guns, ammunition or explosives for the rest of their lives.
The judge called the killing a joint enterprise by two women “who decided to settle a long-standing grudge.” He said that put that way it sounded like a “gangland” slaying, and that this called for an increase in the time.
As the two were led out in handcuffs, Turner called to the judge and others in the courtroom, “Have a merry Christmas.”
The Star’s headline the next day read “Lesbian pair jailed 15 years in killing of another woman.” Its first paragraph described Collins as a bisexual woman. The September reports, which gave her job, her age and the occupations and addresses of the accused, had said nothing about anyone’s sexuality.
On January 5, 1988, the Star published a list of the 60 homicides Metro police investigated in 1987, which it called a record. Collins appeared under September 6.
Vital statistics
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Marlene Ann Collins |
| Age | 34 |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Truck driver |
| Date of death | September 5, 1987 (Toronto Star, at sentencing); the Globe and Mail gave September 6, the day the body was found |
| Manner of death | Suffocation; plastic grocery bag tied over her head |
| Location | Basement apartment, Miller Street, Davenport and Weston Roads area, Toronto |
| Accused | Donna Marie Turner, 37, and Marilyn Florence Arnesen, 34 |
| Charge | First-degree murder, reduced to second-degree murder |
| Defence counsel | Harry Doan and Ed Schofield |
| Crown counsel | Kathy Hawke |
| Judge | Mr. Justice John O’Driscoll |
| Verdict | Guilty plea, second-degree murder |
| Sentence | Life imprisonment, no parole for 15 years, December 18, 1987 |
Sources
- The Toronto Star, September 13, 1987, p. A3
- The Globe and Mail, September 14, 1987, p. A14
- The Toronto Star, December 19, 1987, p. A12
- The Toronto Star, January 5, 1988, p. A8
Murder Village Map