The murders of Fred and Lynn Gilbank triggered the most expensive and exhaustive homicide investigation in Hamilton history.

The Gilbanks were gunned down in their home early in the morning of November 16, 1998.

Major Crimes Detective Steve Hrab arrived on the scene within hours of their bodies being found and, as the case manager has been the driving force behind the investigation ever since. "I was given free reign, asking for and receiving whatever resources I needed," says Hrab.

Those resources have included his own team of investigators working at a location outside of the Hamilton police stations. In the first few months following the murders, Hrab had 12 to 15 officers reporting to him.

In addition to standard investigative tactics such as interviewing family members, friends, co-workers and clients of the victims, police also relied on less common tactics. Surveillance video and especially wiretaps became integral parts of the case.

Combing through those wiretaps proved to be especially time consuming. "Each wire tap authorization runs two months," says Detective Hrab, "depending on the number of phone lines and people you're listening to you could be listening to hundreds of thousands of calls."

After more than six years and six million dollars spent on the investigation, police felt their hard work had finally paid off. In early 2005, police charged two well-known criminals with the murders. "Even though the case is large and circumstantial (and) for the most part it's a difficult case, I felt very confident," says Hrab. Nevertheless, the Crown eventually decided the case was not strong enough to proceed and the charges were withdrawn.

Eight years after the murders, police persist in their pursuit of those responsible for the Gilbank murders. "Our Chief has told us, as long as we have the avenues to investigate, that the case was open and we will continue to investigate," says Hrab.

E-mail to W-FIVE from John Croitoru aka Johnny K-9

Mr. Croitoru's remarks:

I am suing for what happened to me so I cannot provide an interview for your program. I do want to say that what happened to me was wrong. I did not have anything to do with the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbank and do not know who did. It is wrong that after six years of investigation -- they watched everything I did and wiretapped all my calls -- after six years of investigating me, the police did not find any evidence I committed this crime -- everything showed that I'm innocent, but they charged me with two murders I did not commit -- I sat in jail for months when there was no case, no evidence that I was guilty. What happened to me was not right, it should not happen to anyone.