Alexander Kalichuk

Alexander Kalichuk (3 November 1923 - 1975) was a Royal Canadian Air Force Sergeant and a suspect in the [...] of Lynne Harper near the former RCAF Station Clinton near London, Ontario, a crime for which Stephen Truscott was wrongly convicted. Sgt. Kalichuk was known to be a heavy drinker with previous convictions for [...] offenses.

Alexander Kalichuk served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Released in 1945, the Airman returned to civilian life, but in 1950 he re-enrolled in the RCAF. Kalichuk was originally posted to RCAF Station Trenton, but soon after was transferred to RCAF Station Clinton, north of London, Ontario. Prior to leaving Trenton, Sgt. Kalichuk was twice convicted for indecent exposure in Trenton.

Kalichuk served at Clinton as a Supply Technician until 1955, when he released from the RCAF to take a civil service examination. Unsuccessful, Kalichuk returned to the RCAF and Clinton before the end of the year.

In 1957, Kalichuk transferred to RCAF Station Aylmer, AbOUT an hour away from Clinton. However, Kalichuk made frequent trips back to Clinton, where Lynne Harper's father was the senior supply officer, as his residence was a 20 minute drive from the Clinton air station.

About three weeks before Lynne Harper's [...], Kalichuk was arrested and charged by the Ontario Provincial Police for attempting to lure three young girls into his car outside St. Thomas, Ontario. The charge was dismissed shortly afterward (just 12 days before Lynne Harper was murdered) but the judge gave Kalichuk a warning regarding his behaviour.

On the same day Harper disappeared, June 9, 1959, air force medical officers held a discussion regarding Kalichuk's drinking and behaviour. Around this time, Kalichuk's probation officer advised air force officials of another incident of indecent exposure involving Kalichuk in the Town of Seaforth, not far from the Clinton base.

On July 2, three weeks after the [...] of Lynne Harper, Kalichuk was hospitalized due to "overwhelming anxiety, tension, depression and guilt", as reported in RCAF documents.

Police were warning about the activities of an unidentified molester who was preying on young girls from a car. Through all of it however, including the [...] of 12-year old Lynne Harper, Sgt. Kalichuk managed to avoid particular attention as a suspect.

In 1959, Sgt. Kalichuk had requested a transfer back to RCAF Station Clinton, but given the recent [...] of Lynne Harper, senior officers at Clinton were worried about having a known [...] offender in their midst, thus he was posted to the nearby RCAF Station Centralia.

Sgt. Kalichuk finally got his wish to return to RCAF Station Clinton in 1965.

Sgt. Kalichuk drank himself to death in 1975. His final days were spent in a psychiatric hospital in Goderich, Ontario. A former RCAF veteran, who knew Kalichuk from his days as the base drunk at Clinton, was working at the same hospital. This man was shocked to see a disheveled and incoherent Kalichuk wandering the halls, his brain seemingly pickled from years of drinking. He is buried in a small cemetery near Seaforth, Ontario.

Today, the OPP refuses to say if they have ever investigated Sgt. Alexander Kalichuk.

Police and military never seriously considered other suspects in Harper's [...] and suggested the Ontario Provincial Police may have rushed to judgment with Truscott.