海角社区官网

“I had concerns,” she told the court, referring to the investigation. “I didn’t understand what was happening.”

As the Star has previously reported, Strathroy-Caradoc Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police initially targeted Nathaniel’s parents in their investigation.

Van De Wiele faced a number of questions from Snow about her efforts to find answers about what happened to her son Nathaniel while he was in Van Hoof’s care on the morning of Oct. 27, 2015. He died four days later. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.

The judge-alone trial unfolding in London鈥檚 Superior Court started last week after numerous delays and is expected to continue for several more weeks. The case was the subject of a 海角社区官网Star investigation and the focus of “Death in a Small Town,”聽a Star podcast series.

The local police service in Strathroy, a rural community near London, initially launched the investigation into Nathaniel鈥檚 death, with OPP joining soon after.

The court heard that earlier in the investigation Van De Wiele had a 鈥渄istrust of the police鈥� and had taken it upon herself to gather information about connections between Van Hoof and members of the Strathroy-Caradoc Police Service. She said she was operating under the advice of Det. Sgt. Todd Amlin, the primary OPP investigator for the first two years who was also assigned as Van De Wiele鈥檚 鈥渧ictim liaison officer.” He told her, 鈥渨hatever information we found, we should send it,” she said.

(As the Star has reported, in an unrelated matter, Amlin, after his time on Nathaniel’s probe, was charged with sexually assaulting a female colleague over a 2010 incident. The complaint was not made until years later. Amlin pleaded guilty to the lesser included charge of assault and received a 12-month probationary order from the court.)

Snow presented multiple emails from Van De Wiele complaining to Amlin that some members of the force appeared to have had a friendly relationship with Van Hoof and her husband. The court heard Van De Wiele went down various rabbit holes on social media, uncovering mutual friends between the Van Hoof family and police officers, and had gathered information from friends in the neighbourhood where Van Hoof lived.

At one point, in August 2017, she wrote to Amlin detailing her discovery that Van Hoof was 鈥渟ocializing and fraternizing鈥� with a Strathroy police officer and his family at a local campground, Snow said.

鈥淜ent and I are disturbed to see firsthand that a Strathroy police officer is socializing with a person who refuses to co-operate fully in the suspicious death of a child,鈥� she wrote in the email. 鈥淐an you help us find out why?鈥�

Van De Wiele told the court she was at the campground聽because her husband’s company ran the coin laundry at the grounds. That’s when she noticed Van Hoof and the officer at the site. She said she took a photograph of Van Hoof because she didn鈥檛 think anyone would believe her.

Snow suggested Van De Wiele was concerned that there was “a conspiracy; a concerted effort to protect (Van Hoof) by the Strathroy police.” He argued she did extensive research on the accused and the officers because she believed Van Hoof had done something to her son and 鈥渨as hiding” 鈥� and that police were in on it.

鈥淣o,鈥� Van De Wiele replied. 鈥淚 did this because I was concerned about the investigation,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 wanted a proper investigation done.鈥�

She is scheduled to return to the stand Wednesday for the fourth day of cross-examination.