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Sean Hine owed an apology
| quote: | RICHMOND HILL -- We all owe Sean Hine an apology.
He did not do it.
One cloud lifts. One remains.
Sean Hine, 29, now mourns his girlfriend, Alicia Ross, 25.
Admit it. You figured he did it. Same for every doughnut shop and newsroom in the GTA.
How many times have we seen it?
Husband or boyfriend cries on the tube. "I miss her. Let her come home, whoever you are."
Then a few days later, cops bust the guy.
Happened in Edmonton in July. Pregnant wife missing. Tearful husband leads search. Body found. Hubby charged.
Happens all the time. So we leap to conclusions.
"But all the women around here knew Sean was innocent," says Lynn Roberts, 53.
"We never kept our kids in the house, we still walked the streets at night."
We're in her pal Jan Mollison's home next door to Hine's duplex on Taylor Mills Dr. in Richmond Hill.
Jan, 45, often saw Sean and Alicia out front of the duplex, cuddling like the new lovers they were. They met at work, dated since June.
"Sean came to tell me she was missing," says Jan. "He had sunglasses on and I could tell he'd been crying.
"It broke my heart. I can still see them together. He really did love her."
Jan once suggested Sean go away awhile, escape the pressure and the press. He gave her a hug, but he stayed.
After a teary TV interview outside the Ross home and an admission to the press that he was "pretty much the prime suspect" he clammed up.
'PERSON OF INTEREST'
What's he hiding? we wondered. After all, he was the last person to see her alive, playing pool at her parents' place in a leafy corner of Thornhill on Aug. 16.
"The media all made him out to be a monster," says Gina Valenti, a neighbour two doors down on Taylor Mills.
Even Alicia's mom wondered aloud why Sean called 911 when he couldn't find his girlfriend the next morning. Why not call her parents?
York Region cops said he was not a suspect, just a "person of interest." Well, that still does not sound good, does it?
They asked Lynn Roberts if Hine and his roommates had put out their garbage the morning after Alicia vanished.
Dogged police work, has to be done, but hard on your image if it's your garbage they want to check.
They busted Hine for drunk driving on Aug. 21.
So his car sits in the driveway.
'JUST DEVASTATED'
Out he comes on a trail bike, a fit, handsome young man in sunglasses, who does not want to talk.
It cannot have been long since someone called him about the arrest of Alicia's neighbour, or that awful find up north.
Now at least can you mourn in peace, Sean?
"Yes," he says, and speeds off for his parents' house.
They are a 10-minute pedal across Yonge St., on a sun-dappled stretch of Centre St.
"We're just devastated about Alicia," his dad tells me from the backyard of the lovely two-storey Tudor. Sean's mother is inside, crying.
The folks on Centre St., who watched Sean Hine grow up, were just as staunch in his defence.
"He was like my son," says Teresa Van, next door. "He's been through hell, total hell."
"People jump to conclusions," says Bill Savage, 61, across the street. "We didn't. He was never that kind of kid."
Nubey Fierro, 37, went to the Hines on behalf of the street, when the storm broke.
"We know Sean's not guilty," she told them. "We're here if you need us."
Neighbours mowed the lawn, watered the flowers, while TV crews and cops haunted Centre St.
"Worse than death for the parents," says Nubey.
I doubt Alicia's parents agree, but I know what she means.
And that cloud of suspicion might have lingered forever.
Already, it has aged Sean, say the neighbours.
The coming days and weeks will be no picnic, either.
Says Nubey Fierro: "Let's make sure his slate is wiped clean."
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| quote: | Originally posted by jester
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