An Edmonton man accused of child luring faked his own suicide to avoid being extradited to the US.
Robert Ermis Andronyk, 70, was charged with seven counts of luring a minor for sexual exploitation, according to court documents.
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He’d allegedly been chatting online with someone he believed to be a little girl in the summer of 2013 and went as far as to arrange a meetup in a park in Chandler, Arizona, the National Post reports. But when he got to the park, he was instead arrested by police—an officer had been posing as the girl. Eventually, Andronyk was sent back to Canada, and last September the application for his extradition was approved.
Andronyk had been out on bail awaiting an appeal of the extradition when he went missing and faked his own suicide by making it look like he jumped off a bridge.
On Nov. 30, the RCMP found an abandoned car near Edmonton’s Vinca Bridge, which contained a suicide note addressed to Andronyk’s daughter, according to court documents.
The note expressed his “fears about extradition, facing lengthy prison time and not being able to afford a lawyer.”
“Based on my observations at the location, I believed Robert Andronyk may have jumped off the Vinca Bridge,” said RCMP Cost. Steve Burgess in an affidavit. Burgess said there were chunks of ice in the river. He said that he spoke to Andronyk’s daughter, who told him her dad’s medication and wallet were at his home and there was a note on the counter “with a list of funeral songs.”
In early December, RCMP did an aerial search of the river but couldn’t locate Andronyk’s body.
Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Jack Watson noted that the attorney general had been skeptical of Andronyk’s suicide—a view with which he evidently agreed.
“There is also almost a ‘B movie’ quality to the way in which this alleged suicide is said to have occurred,” Watson said in his judgment, noting the bridge suicide wasn’t supported by physical evidence and that Andronyk wasn’t actually broke but possessed “a large amount of cash.”
“The applicant is also said to have made an effort to develop another identity, albeit unsuccessfully.”
At the end of April, dismissed the extradition appeal, Justice Watson rescinded Andronyk’s bail, and approved a warrant for his arrest.
According to the Post, Andronyk has since been arrested and appeared in court in BC May 1.
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