UM case featured on "Crime Stories"

[crystaldawn]

Tonight at 9 pm central "Crime Stories" on the Bio channel will be profiling the murder of Corinne "Punky" Gustavson. Clifford Sleigh was eventually convicted of the crime. I believe its also airing late tonight and again at 5 pm central on Saturday.

[crystaldawn]

For those of you who didn't get a chance to watch it, I'll fill you in on some of what the show said but be warned some of it is quite disturbing. First off, very grim that Punky was violently raped and suffocated. The little girl who was playing with Punky when she was abducted kept saying a murderer or "the boogeyman" took her. Gave a description of him. Police had several suspects at first including Punky's uncle but he denied it and the family didn't believe he did it. Clifford Sleigh was one of the suspects at first. He had cleets like the killer wore (they could tell by the tracks in the mud at the truckyard where her body was dumped but they weren't the exact ones plastered at the crime scene) and matched the general description. His family corroborated his alibi. He was at the time a suspect in the rape of a 12 year old girl at the time and had a history of rape and violent crimes. He willingly submitted to dna, hair and saliva samples. Initially there was no dna found on Punky, just a black pubic hair with no root so they weren't able to get any dna from it. They mentioned UM profiling the case and said 500 tips were called in but nothing came of them. Then around 2001 with dna being more advanced, authorities sent Punky's clothes were sent off to LabCorp in hopes of more extensive testing. It worked because semen was found on one of Punky's socks. They were able to produce a dna profile and began checking it against the many possible suspects. Clifford Sleigh's dna sample was gone as it had been used in a rape case. However since he was currently in prison it was then a law that all violent and sex offenders give a dna sample to put in a national database. Clifford was a match to the dna found on Punky's clothes. The police were finally able to get a confession out of him. He showed no remorse and said when he left Punky in the truckyard she was still alive (police didn't buy this for a second, he was just trying to get out of a 1st degree murder charge). He said the night of the abduction he was angry at his commonlaw wife for telling his family that Clifford had recently beat her up. Wanting to get back at her, his initial plan was to find her 12 year old daughter and rape her. He drove around looking but couldn't find her so he happened to see Punky and her friend playing outside and decided to abduct her. There was no death penalty in Canada so he received life.

[mphs95]

Originally Posted by crystaldawn

For those of you who didn't get a chance to watch it, I'll fill you in on some of what the show said but be warned some of it is quite disturbing. First off, very grim that Punky was violently raped and suffocated. The little girl who was playing with Punky when she was abducted kept saying a murderer or "the boogeyman" took her. Gave a description of him. Police had several suspects at first including Punky's uncle but he denied it and the family didn't believe he did it. Clifford Sleigh was one of the suspects at first. He had cleets like the killer wore (they could tell by the tracks in the mud at the truckyard where her body was dumped but they weren't the exact ones plastered at the crime scene) and matched the general description. His family corroborated his alibi. He was at the time a suspect in the rape of a 12 year old girl at the time and had a history of rape and violent crimes. He willingly submitted to dna, hair and saliva samples. Initially there was no dna found on Punky, just a black pubic hair with no root so they weren't able to get any dna from it. They mentioned UM profiling the case and said 500 tips were called in but nothing came of them. Then around 2001 with dna being more advanced, authorities sent Punky's clothes were sent off to LabCorp in hopes of more extensive testing. It worked because semen was found on one of Punky's socks. They were able to produce a dna profile and began checking it against the many possible suspects. Clifford Sleigh's dna sample was gone as it had been used in a rape case. However since he was currently in prison it was then a law that all violent and sex offenders give a dna sample to put in a national database. Clifford was a match to the dna found on Punky's clothes. The police were finally able to get a confession out of him. He showed no remorse and said when he left Punky in the truckyard she was still alive (police didn't buy this for a second, he was just trying to get out of a 1st degree murder charge). He said the night of the abduction he was angry at his commonlaw wife for telling his family that Clifford had recently beat her up. Wanting to get back at her, his initial plan was to find her 12 year old daughter and rape her. He drove around looking but couldn't find her so he happened to see Punky and her friend playing outside and decided to abduct her. There was no death penalty in Canada so he received life.

I am against the death penalty, so I'm glad he got life. However, I do take comfort in the fact that people are going to be after him thanks to his place in the prison food chain. Hopefully someone will give him a taste of his own medicine.

[James T]

I really cannot comprehend family or friends who give false alibis, if anybody I was related to may have killed somebody, raped them etc then I would want them to face the music. How can they protect them especially knowing they will likely do it again, they must have no morals at all.