Robbie was murdered on Friday April 19, 2002.  Three Monsters took his life.

The first, a male (16 years old) who cannot be named because of the Youth Justice Criminal Act was a classmate of Robbie’s.  He had attended the local public school that Robbie had gone to.  Although not close friends, they were acquaintances.  Even though this individual was given a lesser sentence than the other two, his role in the murder contributed to the death of Robbie.

The second and third killers are Terry Baker who was 16 years old and Bronson Penasse who was 20 years old at the time.  They were dating each other and often told others that they were engaged.  They both are not from the Orangeville area, but from Scarborough.  Baker and Penasse were both living in youth shelters together in around the GTA (leaving each one on their own or being asked to leave) before staying at the youth shelter in Orangeville on April 1st, 2002.

As most teens are, Robbie had stayed out past curfew one night and decided to stay at the youth shelter in Orangeville. April 10th, 2002 was the night that Robbie met Baker and Penasse.  Robbie returned home the next day and did not mention a word about Baker and Penasse or their strange behaviour.

Over the next 8 days Robbie hung out with Baker and Penasse. They volunteered for a campaign office for a local man running for MP.  On April 18th, 2002 a local restaurant held an event for Orangeville youth where the 16 year old male who cannot be named was introduced to Baker and Penasse.  The four left the restaurant and went to a convenience store and then to a liquor store.  After the liquor store the four headed out to the wetlands (now called Dragonfly Park). Alcohol and marijuana were consumed.  Two times Robbie left the area to walked over to a donut shop (used to be on Townline) to call friends to see if they would like to come out and party.  Both times his friends declined the offer.  Robbie headed back out to where the other three were.  Penasse had consumed alcohol all day and started feeling nauseas.  He had asked the 16 year old male to stick his finger down his throat to induce vomiting.  Robbie had laughed at this and it was at this point that Robbie’s life was now in danger.  Robbie was beaten, raped, and tortured for 3 hours and then left for dead.  All three were co-participants in Robbie’s death.  As the details are extremely disturbing for us, we wish not to relive Robbie’s last moments on this website.  We wish to honour his memory instead.  Robbie died a very slow, painful death. They told us the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Toxicology blood tests showed that Robbie had no alcohol or drugs in his system.

After murdering Robbie, the 16 year old male, Baker and Penasse walked to an acquaintance’s house nearby to ask for a place to stay.  He refused, but allowed them to clean up.  The three murderers had let the acquaintance know that they just killed someone out in the wetlands. After the murderers left, the acquaintances called a friend and they went into the area to look for Robbie, but it was to dark.  The next day they went to the wetlands again and they found Robbie’s body.  They contacted the Police. (We are very grateful to those two young men for going back to look for Robbie, they also have to live with this horror. Without them, we might not have known where Robbie was for days. They are heroes!)

The three then walked the train tracks; they threw away Robbie’s watch that they had taken from his wrist. They walked right pass the Police Station. They went into a grocery store to buy pop and sandwiches.  The three continued down the tracks where they slept in the grass til it started to rain. They returned to a barn they had previously past and went to sleep.  In the morning, the owner of the barn found them and told them to get out. The 16 year old male, Baker and Penasse started to walk up the tracks again and stopped to bury their personal effects. They walked to a Municipal building out in the county where they asked for water and directions to British Columbia. It was there that the workers in the building found the three suspicious and called the police.  (We are very grateful to these people for calling the Police; the murders could have gotten away!)

The police questioned the 16 year old male about what he was doing with the other two and why he had blood on his shorts. The 16 year old replied that he had cut himself on plastic from the sandwich he had the night before. The Police asked what else they had done the night before; he said that he had drank with the other two at the flag pole at the entrance to Orangeville, and later broke into a barn to sleep.  The 16 year old said the other two had broken into a gumball machine at the campaign office during the day before and used that money to buy the alcohol. The police officers took all three into the Orangeville station to check out this story.  (We are also very grateful to the two Police officers for following their gut feelings and taking them to Orangeville.)  Robbie had already been found at the flag pole area when the three arrived at the police station.

Robbie’s Mother went to the Police Station to report Robbie missing; he had left the day before to go looking for a job. She was getting worried about him and it wasn’t like him not to call her.  He had used up the minutes on his cell phone and had left it at home and hadn’t called from another phone.

April 20th, 2002 the three where accused of First Degree Murder for the death of Robbie McLennan.  Details of their charges can be found under the legal status.