A lost identity with a dark side

Investigators find a Florida dementia patient is wanted in Canada in the death of his first wife in 1966 and the attempted murder of his second.

Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 8, 2002

FORT MYERS -- With his weathered face and shock of white hair, the patient complaining of dizziness looked every inch like a Florida retiree.

But the man said he didn't know who he was. Officials at Lee Memorial Hospital diagnosed him with dementia, then spent more than a year trying to establish his identity.

Last summer, a detective and a private investigator began to unlock the mystery. The man's name was Jacques Rousseau, 80, of Montreal And he was wanted in Canada in connection with the murder of his first wife in 1966 and the attempted murder of his second wife 14 years later.

On Thursday, a judge ruled the Alzheimer's patient should be sent back to Canada as soon as possible, despite his diminished mental state.

"We feel he should be in Canada," Lee Memorial spokeswoman Karen Krieger said.

"He is a Canadian citizen and we believe that government should take responsibility."

From the start, hospital officials were suspicious of the patient known as L. Bruce Lyon. The hospital hired a private investigator, and a hypnotist was asked to help. The FBI scanned his fingerprints, but found nothing.

The hospital declared the man a ward of the state and had him moved to an adult living facility in July. Then officials got the break they needed.

"He mentioned his wife had drowned," said Richard Pagerie, a private investigator hired by the hospital. "I said, "Where?' He said in the river by Cowansville (Quebec)."

Through fingerprints sent to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, it was revealed Lyon was really Rousseau, who skipped bail in 1980 and avoided detection for more than two decades.

His wife, Jeanne Rousseau, 46, drowned in a lake near Cowansville on Aug. 6, 1966. Rousseau told investigators he and his wife were sunning themselves on a beach when his wife hit him on the head with a rock and knocked him unconscious. Rousseau said that when he came to, he found his wife had drowned.

In 1980, Rousseau's second wife, Micheline, accused him of trying to strangle her. That's when Canadian authorities reopened the first case.

In 1981, Rousseau was found criminally responsible for Jeanne Rousseau's death. But Rousseau disappeared while free on bail.

It's believed he worked in the U.S. clothing industry, possibly as a designer, and lived in California and on the East Coast, including Massachusetts and Boca Raton.

Investigators said he stole the identity of a Texas radio news director, L. Bruce Lyon, using it for years in the United States and giving it to officials when he checked into Lee Memorial on Feb. 7, 2000.

"He's caused me a lot of grief," Lyon told the Fort Myers News-Press. "I have no idea how he came up with my name or my Social Security number. That's one of the great mysteries we haven't been able to solve."

At the court hearing Thursday, Lee County Circuit Judge Jay B. Rosman gave officials permission to transfer Rousseau to Canadian control and to arrange the equivalent of an American guardianship, which in Canada is called a curatorship.

Guardianship by Lee Memorial cannot end until another is in place to protect Rousseau, who suffers from dementia, thyroid disease and diabetes. His care has cost Florida taxpayers $240,000, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The judge's ruling Thursday pleased Lee Memorial attorney Josephine Gagliardi.

"Had the hospital known he was Canadian, they would not have gone to the length they did and would not have accepted all the financial burden they have for his care."

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