Alissa Martin-Travers was just five years old; Shane Haley, 20, faces murder rap
Author: Mike Peeling
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A five-year-old girl has been murdered in one of the most horrifying crimes to plague the city in recent memory.

Alissa Martin-Travers was killed in her home on Cumberland Street in Cornwall in what police deemed a "violent crime" in a quiet city neighbourhood.

Cornwall police charged Shane Haley, 20, with the first-degree murder. He was arrested at his Cornwall residence.

The murder has left the neighbourhood surrounding Alissa's home wrapped in a blanket of fear.

Teddy bears and flowers were being left outside the home Thursday evening, and neighbours could be seen milling about, quietly consoling each other.

Joseph Quesnel, who lives next door to the house where the murder occurred, said Alissa was a small girl with shoulder-length brown hair who was always outside playing. He recalls often waving hello to the girl.

"To think that happened right next door," Quesnel said. "It's quite upsetting."

Police received a 911 call at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday from Alissa's mother, Stephanie Martin.

The call led officers to investigate the "suspicious death of a child" at the family's 539 Cumberland St. residence.

Alissa lived there with her mother and baby sister, Serenity.

"It deeply saddens me to have to inform the community of the tragic and untimely death of one of its five-year-old citizens," Parkinson said at a city hall press conference.

City police chief Dan Parkinson would only say there were "obvious signs of trauma" when discussing the cause of death, giving the police sufficient reason to treat the case as a possible homicide.

He said Martin, who is not considered a suspect, and Haley were only "remote acquaintances." Haley is currently the only suspect in the murder investigation.

The accused is in police custody and scheduled to appear in court Friday.

Alissa's body will undergo a post-mortem examination to determine the cause of death today in Toronto.

The investigation taskforce, led by the city police's criminal investigation division's major crimes unit, is made up of several officers from various units, including the sexual assault and child abuse unit.

Parkinson said frontloading the investigation with so much manpower is important in a case of this magnitude. The police don't suspect sexual assault to be a factor in the girl's death.

Uniformed and plain-clothed Cornwall police officers kept watch over a perimeter established around the small beige house just south of the corner at Sixth Street West on Thursday morning.

A forensic identification unit arrived on the scene, followed shortly thereafter by a canine unit.

Parkinson said a search of the neighbourhood was ongoing, and had already yielded some "items of interest" he could not describe to avoid compromising the investigation.

A man walking around the corner onto Lauber Avenue, just a few houses south of 539 Cumberland St., said he was upset because the child who died was his niece, but wouldn't comment any further.

Sheena Seguin says she knows Martin and Alissa from the time they lived in the same building on Seventh Street.

Martin would come to Sequin, also a young mother, to get cigarettes and chat.

tagged along

Alissa would often tag along and visit the building laundry room, located across the hall from the family's previous apartment.

"She was so happy and smart and cute," Seguin said. "She would come in and ask what we were doing."

She described the little girl's death as "crazy. You can't trust anyone anymore."

Seguin also said she knows Haley, who attended St. Matthew's Catholic Learning Centre at the same time, but only in passing.

"He didn't go to school much though," Seguin said.

What those things were she didn't know for certain, but heard about them after the fact.

The Cornwall Community Police Service is continuing its investigation into the death.

mpeeling@standard-freeholder.com

A makeshift memorial stands near the crime scene on Cumberland Street in Cornwall. Alissa Martin-Travers, 5, was found dead in her family home Thursday. Click here for more images

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