WATTS CALLS FRIEND FROM HIDEOUT

Says He May Turn Himself In

Police remove a cat and bags of evidence from the island home of Chris
Watts on Puslinch Lake yesterday.

PUSLINCH LAKE -- Fugitive Chris Watts told a friend he's afraid to
surrender to police because of the hostile atmosphere the media has created
since the death of Amanda Raymond, 13.

The 41-year-old man is wanted on charges of sexual assault, sexual
interference and drug trafficking. The charges were laid during the police
investigation into Amanda's death at Watts' home on an island in Puslinch
Lake, east of Cambridge.

Pierre (Frenchie) Debuque, 34, said Watts came to his trailer at Puslinch
Lake shortly after midnight on July 6 and said he wanted a ride to
Kitchener later in the morning.

Watts was nowhere in sight when a team of OPP officers came to arrest him
hours later and raided his two-storey home on Somme Island.

Debuque said Watts phoned him two days later as police were scouring the
island and surrounding waters for evidence relating to Amanda's death.

Debuque said Watts told him he plans to surrender to police through his
lawyer and fight the charges.

Debuque said his phone's caller identification service told him Watts was
calling from Toronto.

"He wanted to know what's going on. I told him to turn himself in. He wants
to wait until the heat and pressure are off. He said, 'The media will try
to kill me,' because of his past," Debuque said in an interview yesterday.

Watts told him he didn't want to lose Somme Island, where he had built a
sprawling house with a hot tub, sauna, landscaped rock garden, and private
dock.

"He told me he bought it for the peace and quiet," Debuque said.

But there hasn't been much peace and quiet since Amanda's death on June 27.
She had attended a party on the island with Watts and his girlfriend,
Stephanie Wesley, 19, and a number of other people. Amanda was pronounced
dead at Cambridge Memorial Hospital after being found unconscious in Watts'
bed the next day.

The case heated up last week after Watts was quoted telling a reporter he
had provided a quantity of the prescription drug Percodan for his party
guests and that Amanda had taken three pills.

Debuque said Watts and Wesley came to his trailer at about 7 a.m., the day
Amanda died. They wanted to borrow some milk and bread for breakfast. While
the pair were speaking to him, he noticed a number of their party guests on
the beach. He believes Amanda was among them. He said they all returned to
the island together for breakfast.

Asked about Watts' relationship with Wesley, Debuque said he believed she
was his girlfriend. He was a frequent visitor on the island and Debuque was
led to believe Watts had rescued her from the street, helped wean her off
drugs and convinced her to live with her grandmother in Fergus and go back
to school.

Debuque moved into the trailer park this summer and that's when he met
Watts, he said.

"He wasn't a close friend. He was an acquaintance."

Amanda's death and the allegations of drug abuse shocked Debuque, but he
said he's willing to wait for the trial before jumping to any conclusions
about what happened on the island.

Debuque said Watts wanted a drive to Guelph where he was to see a friend.

"I dropped him off at Tim Hortons."

A few hours later, at about 12:30 a.m., July 6, he said Watts came back to
his trailer and asked for the ride to Kitchener. But he never saw him again
and doesn't know whether the fugitive spent the night on the island, where
police arrived at about 5:45 a.m.

The next reported sighting of Watts came four days later, said Wellington
County OPP spokesman Dale Gear. He said police rushed to rural Puslinch
Township on Monday night after someone said Watts was walking along a
deserted country road not far from his island home.

"It was about 9 p.m.," Gear said yesterday. "But they didn't find anybody
by the time they got there."

Gear said police have had no other reports of Watts' whereabouts.

"We're still hoping he will turn himself in," Gear said.

"We're not going to hold our breath, sit back and put our feet up," Gear
said. "We're working closely with police in Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo
and Guelph, where he was last dropped off. He could be anywhere."

Gear said investigators were expected to have finished their search of
Watts island home last night. Around 9 p.m. four officers returned to shore
from the island with garbage bags full of evidence. One of Watts' two cats
was also taken from the house and given to a nearby resident.

Another cat and his Rottweiler, Jupiter, had already been taken by friends,
police said.

A mattress from the home was also folded inside a police van and taken away.