DAWN WALTON
The Globe and Mail (Canada)

As a member of the Saskatoon Light Infantry, Alexander (Sandy) Kostichuk served on the battlefields of Europe for the duration of the Second World War, and received his only wound on the last day of the campaign for the Western Front: shrapnel to the arm.

Mr. Kostichuk miraculously survived the trenches and returned to Canada a travelling salesman only to be killed in Regina in 1974 at the age of 54 in a mysterious apartment fire, which claimed the lives of two others and horribly burned a young girl.

The blaze was seemingly set by a fire bug that had been targeting the neighbourhood for months. But the war veteran's family didn't hold out hope that the case would ever be solved.

Now, more than 35 years later, police say they have cracked the case and charged a 57-year-old Calgary man with three counts of manslaughter and one count of assault causing bodily harm.

"It was like a bombshell. It's been 35 years," Doris Fichtner, Mr. Kostichuk's younger sister, said yesterday upon learning of the charges.

The only thing that survived the blaze, the 81-year-old great-grandmother added, was her brother's war medals.

Michael John Morrison, who was arrested last week in Calgary, appeared briefly in a Regina court yesterday and is being held in custody pending tomorrow's bail hearing. He is also charged with setting another fire which occurred a week before the deadly blaze.

At 4:36 a.m. on Feb. 10, 1974, emergency crews responded to a report of a fire at Rosedale Manor, a three-storey building with 21 suites, located at 1140 McIntosh St.

Fire tore through the brick-and-wood structure sending tenants fleeing into the cold and dark. According to a report in the Regina Leader-Post at the time, one mother dropped her 18-month-old child from a window before jumping out herself, suffering only a few minor cuts.

Tenant Gladys Christie, a 60-year-old teacher at Luther College with a passion for French culture and language, was rushed to hospital in fair condition, but she later died of her injuries.

Mr. Kostichuk attempted to escape the building, but he was overcome by smoke and passed out on the landing.

Rose Woznesensky never made it out either. The 51-year-old widow and mother of six, was looking forward to a fresh start with a new job and new apartment.

Ms. Woznesensky's 7-year-old granddaughter, Melinda, who had been enjoying a sleep-over at her grandmother's, survived, but barely.

A police officer and firefighter ran into the smoke-filled building to rescue the youngster, who suffered burns - most of them third-degree - to 80 per cent of her body. The little girl would spend nine months in isolation, endure more than 40 surgical procedures and have to wear a full-body pressure suit for a year to speed healing.

Now a working mother of three children, Melinda was in tears, elated with the news. She told the Leader-Post in 2005 that she recalled her grandmother screaming "fire" and then running down the hall, but her "baba" collapsed before making it down the stairs.

She has wondered who would do such a thing.

"Part of me would love to know who he was, just to have him know...what it did to our lives," she said.

When Sergeant Brent Shannon of Regina Police Service's cold case unit, picked up the file in October, 2007, much of the leg work had been done.

Police had zeroed in on a suspect - Mr. Morrison - who moved to Calgary in 1975.

"But at the time, the officers involved in consultation with the Department of Justice felt that they just weren't quite there and a little bit more investigation went into it," Sgt. Shannon said yesterday.

Because the case is now before the courts, he couldn't say what tipped the scales. But he did point out that advances in technology and changes in relationships both played a role, as they do in most cold cases.

"Think of all the technology that has changed since 1974," he said, adding, "Relationships break down and people all of a sudden become motivated or less fearful. Those are the big things that occur in my world."

It may also provide some hope to others wondering and waiting.

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JUne 2, 2009