WATTS SAYS HE'S SCARED TO GIVE UP

Fugitive Chris Watts told a friend he's too scared to surrender to police
because of the hostile atmosphere the media has created over the death of
Amanda Raymond, 13. The 41-year-old Hamilton native is wanted on charges of
sexual assault, sexual interference and drug trafficking. The charges were
laid during the police investigations into the teenager's death at Watts'
home on Puslinch Lake east of Cambridge.

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

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

Debuque said Watts phoned him from Toronto two days later while police were
scouring the island and surrounding waters for evidence relating to the
death of the 13-year-old girl.

Debuque said Watts told him he eventually plans to turn himself in to
police through his lawyer and fight the charges. Debuque said call display
told him Watts was calling from Toronto.

"He wanted to know what's going on. I told him to turn himself 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 two-storey 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's bed.

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 ingested 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 was 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 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 and helped wean her off
drugs. He had also convinced her to live with her grandmother in Fergus and
go back to school. "They both told me that," he said.

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. He wasn't
aware of Watts's criminal past until he read that in newspaper reports.

He said he's willing to wait for the trial before jumping to any
conclusions about what happened on the island.

Debuque said he has also been questioned by police. 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 Monday night after a resident said Watts was walking along the
side of a deserted country road not far from Watts's island home.

"It was about 9:00 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's whereabouts.

"We're still hoping he will turn himself in," Gear said, repeating a
refrain that has marked his every media interview since police obtained a
Canada-wide warrant for the arrest of the career criminal.

But Gear warned they weren't waiting for Watts.

"We're not going to hold our breath, sit back and put our feet up. 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 by sunset last night.

He declined to offer any information about what police have seized during
their five-day search.