Barbara Stoppel Murder Timeline
The murder occured on December, 23, 1981.
4:00pm Stoppel starts her shift at Ideal Donut Shop
8:00 Store owner, Vlademir Ududec, comes in to collect cash, and pays Stoppel her wages, leaving a float of $33.00 in the till.
8:10 Regular customer leaves shop, no other customers in the shop. Stoppel makes a phone call to a friend.
8:20 Mrs. Lorraine Janower, Boots Drugstore employee, goes to Ideal Donut to get a coffee. A man inside locks the door and walks toward the bathroom on the left hand side of the shop. Mrs. Janower returns to Boots and tells a co-worker, Ms. Nash, about the strange situation. They attempt to call the Donut shop owner, but are unable to reach him.
8:25 Paul McDougal arrives at the shopping centre with his wife. He parked his truck in a way which permitted him to watch the activities within the donut shop. His wife went to the Boots Drugstore while he remained in his truck. Mr. McDougald watched a man in the donut shop talking with the waitress. The two people in the donut shop talked for a few minutes, then walked to the back of the store with the man leading, followed by the waitress. At the rear of the store, they continued talking for a time and then the man returned to the front of the store and locked the door. He then went back to the rear of the store and both entered the ladies' washroom. At this point, Mr. McDougald went into the drugstore and spoke to Mrs. Janower. He then returned to his truck and continued to watch the donut shop but did not see anything further. He then went into G & T Television, told the manager of the suspicious actions that he had observed and they both continued to watch the donut shop. A short time later, they observed a man come out of the washroom. Upon reaching the front door, the man turned the "open/close" sign, unlocked the door and left in a hurry. He was carrying a brown cardboard box and walked towards the McDonald's store.
8:30 Norman Janower arrives to pick up his wife from work who tells him of the suspicious activity at the Donut shop. He looks to the shop and sees a man turn the OPEN/CLOSED sign over and leave the shop. He walks to the door of the shop.
8:35 John Doerksen had been selling Christmas trees in the parking lot and had walked to the Donut Shop for a coffee. The door was locked and he could see no-one inside. He waited for a few minutes and was joined by Norman Janower. A man came out of the ladies' washroom, closed the door, picked up a box, flipped the OPEN/CLOSED sign to CLOSED, unlocked the door and came out. Doerksen asked the man what was going on, and the man said that the store was closed. The man started walking away. Janower called out for Stoppel and received no response. He went to the bathroom and found her near death on the floor. He called out to Doerksen to follow the man, who was now running towards the Norwood Bridge. Mr. Doerksen picked up a baseball bat at the Domo gas station and followed the man. He caught up to him a quarter of the way across the bridge and an altercation of some kind took place. When the man drew a knife, Mr. Doerksen backed away. Mr. Doerksen saw the man throw something over the bridge. When he returned to the donut shop, he saw the police at the scene and decided to go home. At home, he drank about five bottles of beer and decided to call the hospital and inquire about Barbara Stoppel. This was the first time that he spoke to the police. Shortly after that call, the police picked him up and took a statement from him.
8:45 Mr. Marcel Gloux was driving over the Norwood Bridge that evening. He saw a male person standing on the side of the bridge throwing items down to the river below. He also saw a man wearing what he believed was snowmobile outfit, who was armed with a baseball bat and running towards the man on the bridge.
8:46 Police receive a call for assistance from Ms. Nash, employee of Boots Drugstore. The police arrived shortly after the call and took possession of the scene. The women's washroom showed evidence of a struggle. There were a number of small bloodstains on the floor, south wall and sink. The wastebasket had been overturned and its contents spread across the floor.
Mr. Vlademir Ududec, the owner of the donut shop, arrived on the scene and, on checking the cash register, determined that there was a total of $33.00 missing