Identical twins reunited after 16-year separation
Published: February 9, 2006
A man who spent more than 30 years in prison for a killing he says he didn’t commit has been reunited with his terminally ill twin brother after a 16-year separation.
Romeo and Don Phillion, 66, wept as they hugged each other Tuesday at Prince George Regional Hospital, where Don is being treated for emphysema.
“I’m so happy to see you,” Romeo said to Don, kissing him several times amid tears and smiles.
In a case that is being reviewed, Romeo Phillion was convicted of killing Ottawa firefighter Leopold Roy in 1967. He confessed in 1972 while in police custody on a robbery charge, then immediately recanted and has claimed his innocence ever since.
He needed permission from a court in Ontario for a 10-day visit with his brother. He said he had been trying to get to Prince George since he was released on bail in July 2003.
“I packed my bag and took the first flight out,” he said. “It took all my savings from my old-age pension, but I’m so glad to be here.”
The most significant piece of evidence to emerge on his behalf is a report by Ottawa police officer David McCombie on April 12, 1968.
McCombie wrote that Romeo Phillion was at a gas station off Highway 401 near Trenton, Ontario, between noon and 1 p.m. the day Roy was killed.
As a result, he concluded, it would have been impossible for Phillion to have traveled nearly 150 miles back to Ottawa by 2:45 p.m. to commit the crime.
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