The crime scene had the chilling earmarks of a gangland settling of accounts.
Except that instead of the bodies being dumped “in the weeds” of the Meadowlands in New Jersey, they were discovered in a pickup truck in a farmer’s field in Southwestern Ontario.
They were, sadly, no less dead.
STOLEN SILVERADO
It was hunters who came across the macabre scene on Nov. 4, 2018, near London, Ont. A stolen grey 2006 Chevrolet Silverado was bizarrely sitting by itself in the field.
Closer inspection revealed that the Silverado contained three bodies wrapped in blankets, bound with cords and covered by a tent in the bed of the truck. The dead included seven-month-pregnant Melissa Trudi Miller, 37, and her close friends, Alan Porter, 33, and Michael Jamieson, 32.
Miller and Porter had been stabbed to death while Jamieson had been shot in the chest.The stabbing deathswere particularly savage, cops said.
SHIPMAN DEAD
The Six Nations man who did the killing was Nicholas Shipman. The troubled 43-year-old killer is happily no longer a worry on this mortal coil. Shipman had been serving an 18-year sentence for manslaughter, but that concluded abruptly.
TheCorrectional Service of Canadaconfirmed that Shipman died on Oct. 2 at the notorious Millhaven Institution’s Regional Treatment Centre, near Napanee. CSC released no details on Shipman’s demise.
According to cops, the waythe gruesome murderswent down was thus: A gathering of around nine people, the booze begins to flow, a drunken argument, and murder.
A court heard that Shipman attacked Miller, and when the chivalrous Porter intervened, he too was stabbed multiple times.
As for Jamieson, cops theorized it was a matter of nice guys finish last. Jamieson was reportedly “coerced” into helping Shipman move the bodies. When the deed was done, he was shot and joined his friends in the truck – and the hereafter.
BAD BLOOD
There was a history of bad blood between Shipman and Miller – profoundly bad.
In a dark preview of what was to come, on June 24, 2017, a man named Douglas Hill disappeared from Brantford. Eight weeks later, his remains were discovered on the Oneida Nation of the Thames territory near London.
Shipman and two others faced charges of helping the alleged killer evade police.
Melissa Miller was married to Douglas Hill.
Also on Shipman’s criminal CV were drunk driving charges and auto theft.
And in July 2014, he was involved in a bloody brawl that left a man stabbed in the temple and in critical condition. Our hero was charged with attempted murder and later went down on aggravated assault.
Charges would be dropped for some inexplicable reason in the Douglas Hill homicide in October 2018. A day later, Shipman was back in custody for miscellaneous crimes; the day after that, the bodies were found in the field.
NOT WANTED
There is little doubt that the world is a better place without Nick Shipman. According to theTurtle Island News, residents and the Six Nations Elected Council do not want the sprawling reserve to be Shipman’s final resting place.
And rightly so.
The grisly murders traumatized and tore apart the community, destroying generational friendships. Shipman’s murder frenzy is still deeply felt and will remain so for a very, very long time.
Shipman was a bad seed, now figuratively planted.
