Engineer Pierre Kounelis invited Nasir Ameeriar to his downtown apartment on the 11th floor of 3445 Drummond on Friday 19 June 1987 to sell his father's 1967 white 1967 Jaguar sports car for $22,000.
Kounelis, 64, was a Greek Montreal who had worked his entire career for the City of Montreal and the Montreal Urban Community.
Mohamed Nasir Ameeriar was a 23-year-old Afghan who was living with his brother at 3605 St. Urbain. He had already given Kounelis a cheque for $6,000 and was bringing him a second cheque for $16,000.
The two tested the car on nearby streets, along with Kounelis' young son Jean-Pierre, aged 12.
Soon after, a neighbour found Kounelis' bloody corpse in the fourth-floor staircase half-covered in plastic.
Minutes earlier Ameeriar left with the boy, according to building superintendent witness Gilles Pilon.
Ameeriar later rented a car with Kounelis' credit card, which led police to track him down soon after. His prints were found in the building.
Dozens of police officers searched for the boy's remains around St. Urbain and Sherbrooke. They put out an alert for a taxi driver who might have driven the duo from the scene of the crime.
Jean-Pierre was never found. Police suspected that Ameeriar killed the boy because he had witnessed the murder.
One theory had it that Ameeriar might have simply put the boy's lifeless body out in the garbage that passed by his home that same day and that the remains were never located because they were swiftly burned at the city incinerator.
No charges were laid in his disappearance and the boy was never found, much to the regret of his mother Lena Kounelis, 52, who offered a $20,000 reward for information of his whereabouts.
Ameeriar was convicted of murdering Kounelis after a two-week trial on 19 Dec. 1987.
One witness told the court that Ameeriar tried to have the witness doorman killed to prevent him from testifying.
Ameeriar was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for 15 years on 28 June 1988.
He continued to plead his innocence. He said that he didn't want his family, who loved him, to visit him in prison.
Once at Parthenais prison, he paid another inmate Michel Reeves to confess to killing the boy.
Reeves implicated an inmate named Gilles Meloche of Port-Cartier to settle an old grudge.
Meloche, of course, wasn't too happy about this false accusation. His name was cleared by 1991 and he sued journalist Claude Poirier for bringing his name into the affair.
Meloche was later charged with assaulting a prison guard while serving his time.
Somewhere after 2003 Ameeriar was released and married a woman named France Thibault who divorced him in the summer of 2005. He had apparently been living in a posh spot at 22 Upper Trafalgar, according to a business records document.
Ameeriar was on some sort of parole when he violated his parole conditions by disappearing, which merited him a spot on Canada's most wanted, as noted on the RCMP site.
His whereabouts and activities are anybody's guess.
Kounelis, 64, was a Greek Montreal who had worked his entire career for the City of Montreal and the Montreal Urban Community.
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| Nasir Ameeriar |
The two tested the car on nearby streets, along with Kounelis' young son Jean-Pierre, aged 12.
Soon after, a neighbour found Kounelis' bloody corpse in the fourth-floor staircase half-covered in plastic.
Minutes earlier Ameeriar left with the boy, according to building superintendent witness Gilles Pilon.
Ameeriar later rented a car with Kounelis' credit card, which led police to track him down soon after. His prints were found in the building.
Dozens of police officers searched for the boy's remains around St. Urbain and Sherbrooke. They put out an alert for a taxi driver who might have driven the duo from the scene of the crime.
Jean-Pierre was never found. Police suspected that Ameeriar killed the boy because he had witnessed the murder.
One theory had it that Ameeriar might have simply put the boy's lifeless body out in the garbage that passed by his home that same day and that the remains were never located because they were swiftly burned at the city incinerator.
 |
| JP Kounelis |
Ameeriar was convicted of murdering Kounelis after a two-week trial on 19 Dec. 1987.
One witness told the court that Ameeriar tried to have the witness doorman killed to prevent him from testifying.
Ameeriar was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for 15 years on 28 June 1988.
He continued to plead his innocence. He said that he didn't want his family, who loved him, to visit him in prison.
Once at Parthenais prison, he paid another inmate Michel Reeves to confess to killing the boy.
Reeves implicated an inmate named Gilles Meloche of Port-Cartier to settle an old grudge.
Meloche, of course, wasn't too happy about this false accusation. His name was cleared by 1991 and he sued journalist Claude Poirier for bringing his name into the affair.
Meloche was later charged with assaulting a prison guard while serving his time.
Somewhere after 2003 Ameeriar was released and married a woman named France Thibault who divorced him in the summer of 2005. He had apparently been living in a posh spot at 22 Upper Trafalgar, according to a business records document.
Ameeriar was on some sort of parole when he violated his parole conditions by disappearing, which merited him a spot on Canada's most wanted, as noted on the RCMP site.
His whereabouts and activities are anybody's guess.