“To everyone who organizes and supports the Heimbecker Cup each year – your efforts mean more than words can ever express.”

Chris Abbott sat in the stands at the Morgan Firestone Arena last March trying hard to avoid familiar faces.

Abbott didn’t want to talk about what they’d gone through together back in 1994 and again in 2011. In turned out everyone at the rink felt the same. What they’d experienced was still too painful, words still failed and it still continued to make absolutely no sense.

On Wednesday, March 30, 1994, kinesiology graduate student Joan Heimbecker was shot to death in her room at the Bates Residence by ex-boyfriend Rory Foreman. He’d shown up unannounced with chocolates, champagne, lingerie, a sawed-off shotgun and an ultimatum. Heimbecker was 25 years old.

Abbott, a Hamilton Police Service homicide detective, was assigned to Heimbecker’s case. He was at the crime scene that night. Foreman went on the run and two weeks later turned himself in to police in Colorado.  Abbott, together with Staff Sergeant Steve Hrab, returned Foreman to Canada where he was convicted of Heimbecker’s first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years.

Foreman asked for early parole in 2011. Witnesses from the murder trial would have to testify again. Abbott, who was now a Detective Sergeant, stood in the courtroom and read victim impact statements during Foreman’s faint hope hearing. Abbott also told the jury how Foreman had shown no remorse while being taken into custody and flown back to Canada. Former classmates, family and friends of the Heimbeckers filled the courtroom for all 13 days of the hearing – their grief was still raw and overwhelming. It took the jury just five hours of deliberation before they denied Foreman’s bid for early parole.

“The Faint Hope Clause Hearing forced me – along with so many others affected – to relive the trauma of that tragic night.”

Of all the cases Abbott worked – he retired in 2012 – Heimbecker’s remains the most painful to talk about. “To this day, my colleagues and I can’t speak of Joan’s case without great emotion and difficulty. I didn’t know Joan but I met so many people who did. She was loved by all. Joan was such an innocent person. Her murder was beyond comprehension and it made no sense – it still doesn’t and it haunts me to this day. It’s an absence that can never be undone.”

Abbott attended the 21^st annual Heimbecker Memorial Cup last March at the invitation of Gianni Parise. Only after becoming friends did Abbott learn that Parise was the driving force behind the annual hockey game. Parise, who was president of the Kinesiology Graduate Student Association in 2003, organized the first game and then enshrined it into the association’s constitution. Every year without fail, the association organizes the game and undergrad, grad students and faculty lace up their skates to raise money for the Joan Heimbecker Scholarship and Bursary and support Interval House Hamilton – a non-profit emergency shelter for women experiencing family violence.  “The game speaks to our culture and sense of community in Kin,” says Parise, who’s currently Acting Dean of the Faculty of Science. “We all recognize the significance of this game.”

Most of the players on the ice weren’t born when Heimbecker’s life ended. Yet they all know about the kinesiology grad student – not just as a murder victim but as a kind and caring woman from a small town who made friends easily and wanted to make a big difference in the world.

Sitting in the stands watching the game, Abbott says he felt a mix of sadness, nostalgia and reflection. There was also deep appreciation for what the students and faculty were doing on the ice and behind the scenes. “To everyone who organizes and supports the Heimbecker Cup each year, thank you. Your efforts mean more than words can ever express.”

Abbott plans to be at this year’s game on Thursday, March 27 at the Chedoke Twin Pad Arena.  “And I’ll keep going for as long as I’m able.”

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