While 2020 is well underway, an investigation stemming from the holidays will reach the courts next month.
Police have charged a 49-year old Niagara Falls woman, suspected of sending hateful holiday greetings in the mail.
It was right before Christmas that Gore Bay artist Perry Patterson received mail.
The letter, sent in a plain white envelope with a typed label taped on, was posted from Toronto.
Inside was a Christmas card along with a typed note in a folder piece of paper, Patterson told the Manitoulin Expoisitor.
But what was inside shocked him.
The message on the note was a symphony of “vulgar words”, venomous, lewd messages and name-calling of both Patterson and his family.
The message allegedly also said that “Everyone in town hates you, why don’t you *expletive) die.
As it would turn out, he was not alone in receiving these nasty greetings.
The Expositor writes approximately 70 people received similar hateful Christmas cards, postmarked on December 17 from Toronto.
“Whoever has done this has been meticulous in putting them together and obviously knows a lot of people in town. The messages are really, really nasty”, another recipient told the paper, adding that the messages made the community come together as opposed to turn on each other.
On Friday, OPP announced charges have been laid against 49-year old Tracie Thomas from Niagara Falls.
She is due to appear in Ontario court of Justice in Gore Bay in the middle of February, charged with 20 counts of mailing an obscene letter as well as criminal harassment and threatening conduct.
