WARNING: This article contains graphic details that may disturb some readers.
The Sault man who attacked and killed a teenage girl inside a Korah Collegiate bathroom four decades ago has won his appeal for a new parole hearing — forcing his victim’s family to fight, yet again, to try to keep him behind bars.
Russell Colwell, now 56, is serving a life sentence for one of the city's most notorious crimes: the murder of 14-year-old student Patrizia Mastroianni, who was randomly targeted, sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times in October 1987.
Colwell — who was 18 at the time of the Korah killing, and marked his 37th year in custody last month — has recently ramped up his efforts to see the outside of prison.
SEE: 'Our life sentence’: Sault family braces for long fight to keep schoolgirl killer behind bars
As SooToday reported earlier this year, he asked the Parole Board of Canada to approve an escorted temporary absence, which is a short-term supervised release. Colwell said he wanted to spend a day doing landscaping work on the grounds of an undisclosed federal building.
The board denied his request in March, citing concerns that his chosen spot was too close to a school and a university. But Colwell promptly filed an appeal with the Parole Board’s Appeal Division, arguing that the panel “should not have taken issue with the location” of his proposed escorted absence.
The appeal division agreed with him, ruling on Sept. 25 that the parole board “did not conduct a fair risk assessment.” Simply put, the appeal panel found there was “conflicting information” about whether an escorted temporary absence could be safely arranged in Colwell’s case — considering the nature of his crimes — and the parole board “did not adequately address this issue.”
As a result, Colwell was granted a fresh parole hearing. It is scheduled for Thursday morning at an undisclosed minimum-security prison in southern Ontario.
For the family of Patrizia Mastroianni, the decision is just the latest chapter in what they’ve described as their life sentence. In a lengthy interview earlier this year, Carmela Roznik and Tiziana Palumbo said they remain determined to keep their sister’s killer incarcerated — but are bracing for the opposite.
“This is our reality,” Palumbo said. “It’s getting closer to him being released and the frequency of these hearings is going to be much more often, so we’re just preparing for that.”
In a written statement provided to SooToday this week, the sisters confirmed that family members and supporters will be attending the hearing on Nov. 21.
“We continue to seek justice for Patti and we will be a voice for her,” they said. “When we present our statements, we will be honouring Patti’s memory and urging the Board to deny any form of parole to Russell Colwell to ensure the safety of other innocent citizens. We will detail our concerns about the possibility of his release, and we will be asking the Board to consider the ongoing profound trauma and suffering our family and the community endures each time we are subjected to this cycle of re-victimization.”
RELATED: OPINION: For schoolgirl killer, parole should never be a possibility
Among the observers at Thursday’s hearing will be retired Ontario judge Norman Douglas. Now a prominent author and columnist, Douglas was the Crown Attorney who prosecuted Colwell’s murder case in the late-1980s.
In a recent opinion column for SooToday, Douglas argued that life without the possibility of parole should be among the sentence options for sex offenders like Colwell.
“No family should have to endure what the Mastroiannis have been through,” he wrote. “They have been living with the nightmare, not only of the killing, but of the possibility that Colwell may be released some day. Why? Because our system of justice puts its spotlight on the plight of the convicted killer. It ignores the plight of the victims.”
