Fugitive Financier Arrested In Slaying -- Canadian Had Vanished With Daughter In 1990

TORONTO - Six years after investment adviser Albert Walker and his teenage daughter vanished, Canada's most wanted fugitive is jailed in England, awaiting a murder trial that may finally solve the mystery that haunted the family they left.

Walker, who headed his own financial services company in Woodstock, Ontario, disappeared with his 15-year-old daughter Sheena during a trip to Europe in 1990.

He was later accused of swindling millions of dollars from investors, including family friends. Early this year, Interpol placed him fourth on its most-wanted list.

There were reported sightings of the father and daughter over the years, but Ontario investigators admitted to being stumped - until last week, when British police, with Canadian help, confirmed that a murder suspect they had arrested Oct. 31 was in fact Walker.

Walker, who was arrested under an alias, is scheduled to appear in court Monday at Torquay to be re-charged under his proper name with the death of Joseph Platt.

British police said Walker, 51, and his daughter, now 21, had lived in Platt's home in Woodham Walter, 50 miles northeast of London, for at least three months at the time of the arrest.

Two children, ages 9 months and about 3 years, were found at the house. The Toronto Star quoted police as saying the children were Sheena's.

Police said Sheena has not been charged, but was asked to remain in Britain for questioning. Her mother, Barbara Walker - an

accountant who was separated from Albert Walker before his disappearance - flew to England to be with her.

Mrs. Walker, who lives in Paris, Ontario, with her three other children, had worked persistently to find her missing daughter. She hired a private investigator whose salary was paid in part by donations from parishioners at the church where Albert Walker once served as an elder.

Police have acknowledged their evidence in the murder case is circumstantial.

They say Platt was last seen with Walker on Platt's sailboat near Devon in July. Platt's decomposing body was found about a week later in trawling nets along the southern English coast.

For two months, police tried to identify the body through dental records, a tattoo and a stainless steel Rolex watch that had stopped on July 22. Registration marks inside the watch led police to Platt's home.

It was unclear whether Walker would be sent back to Canada to face charges of theft and fraud.