A look at some of the cold cases that have been solved in Ontario.
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Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice It took investigators forty years to arrest Joseph George Sutherland in the grisly murders of Toronto women Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice. Tice, a mother of four, was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death at her home on Grace Street in the city’s Bickford Park neighbourhood in August 1983. Gilmour, an aspiring fashion designer, was found dead at her Hazelton Avenue apartment in Yorkville in December of that year. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed. Investigators were not able to connect the two homicides until the year 2000. In 2022, nearly 40 years after the murders, investigators were able to link 61-year-old Sutherland to the case. Sutherland has since pleaded guilty to the charges and has been sentenced to life in prison. Sutherland admitted that he broke into the homes of both women, sexually assaulted them, and stabbed them to death. There is no known evidence that the victims knew each other or that they knew Sutherland.
Ontario's solved cold cases - Richard Neil A series of sexual assaults in the regions of Halton, Peel, and Waterloo between 1992 and 1995 went unsolved for decades until police announced that an arrest had been made in the case earlier this year. Investigators with “Project Woodlands” previously said they were trying to track down a suspect accused of luring children as young as eight into the woods and sexually assaulting them in a number of incidents across the three regions. A composite sketch of a suspect was released around the time of the assaults but police were unable to identify the perpetrator. The investigation was reopened in 2009 but years passed without any major developments. In March 2024, police announced that 64-year-old Richard Neil had been arrested in connection with the case. Neil faces more than 20 charges, including kidnapping, uttering death threats, sexual touching, sexual assault with a weapon, and administering a noxious thing with intent. The charges have not yet been tested in court.
Kevin McBride Kevin McBride, 47, was found dead inside his Malvern apartment on Sheppard Avenue on May 17, 1982 after suffering multiple stab wounds. Investigators determined that McBride had been killed two days earlier after learning that his car, credit card, and other personal effects had been stolen and used between May 15 and May 17. In January, more than four decades after his murder, police identified as suspect in the homicide. Taking advantage of advancements in forensic testing and new DNA databanks, investigators were ultimately led to William Taylor, whose DNA was found at the scene, police said. Taylor had passed away just months before he was identified as the prime suspect in the homicide, according to investigators. “If William Taylor was alive today, he would be arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of Kevin McBride,” police said in a news release back in January.
Yvonne Leroux The body of Toronto teen Yvonne Leroux was discovered by a passerby on the morning of Nov. 30, 1972 in the area of 16 Sideroad, between Jane and Keele streets. Leroux was found 24 kilometres north of where she was last seen the night before at a clinic near York Finch General Hospital, now known as Humber River Hospital. Police said an autopsy later determined that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Despite decades of investigation and a $50,000 reward, the perpetrator was never caught. The police service said it turned to Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) in 2022 after exhausting all other traditional means of investigation. In November 2023, York Regional Police said that the tool ultimately led investigators to Leroux’s killer, who they identified as 26-year-old Bruce Charles Cantelon. Cantelon, police said, took his own life just two years after Leroux's murder. Police were unable to provide a motive for the murder, saying only that Cantelon had a criminal record that involved several violent incidents against women.
Jewell Parchman Langford A murdered woman who for decades was known only as the “Nation River Lady” was identified last year along with the man police believe to be her killer through the use of new technology that uses DNA to find genetic links. In July 2023, police said the woman, who was found dead east of Ottawa in 1975, was identified as Jewell Parchman Langford. Langford’s remains were found on May 3, 1975, floating in the Nation River, a short distance from the Highway 417 bridge near Casselman, Ont., and investigators were unable to identify her for nearly 50 years. Rodney Nichols, an 81-year-old man who resides in Hollywood, Fla., was subsequently charged with her murder, Ontario Provincial Police said. Court documents obtained by the Canadian Press indicate that Nichols was charged with murdering Langford between April 22 and May 3, 1975. Police told The Canadian Press that the 48-year-old woman had travelled to Montreal from her home in Jackson, Tenn., but never returned to the United States. Police also said that the victim and suspect were known to one another. The charges have not yet been proven in court.
Christine Jessop Police announced in Oct. 2020 that they identified a now deceased man who they believe was responsible for Christine Jessop’s disappearance and murder 36 years earlier. Police said that the man, Calvin Hoover, was never considered a suspect in the case but did come up during the investigation as “he and his wife had a neighbour-acquaintance relationship” with the Jessop family. Christine Jessop went missing from her home in Queensville, Ont. in York Region, just west of Highway 404 on Oct. 3, 1984 shortly after returning from a nearby store. Her body was then discovered nearly three months later in a farm field in Sunderland, Ontario. Police sad that she had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. Another neighbour, Guy Paul Morin, was initially convicted of murdering Jessop and spent two years in jail before he was eventually exonerated thanks to a semen sample that was collected from the nine-year-old’s underwear. Hoover was identified as a person of interest but police learned that he had died in 2015. They then used a DNA sample that was obtained during an autopsy on his body to confirm a genealogical link to the semen found on Jessop.
Dennis Joseph Colby The murder of 47-year-old Dennis Joseph Colby, a cold case that was under review to identify any possible links to the Bruce McArthur investigation, was solved in 2019 thanks to a DNA match in the National DNA Data Bank. On Sept. 12, 1995, Colby’s lifeless body was found at an apartment on Cosburn Avenue. Colby’s cause of death was determined to be “extreme trauma to the head” that would be consistent with a beating. Police interviewed several witnesses and released a composite drawing of a person of interest in the case but the murder remained unsolved. In 2018, police say the case was identified as one that should be reviewed for any connections to the McArthur investigation. While Colby was not identified as one of the victims of the 67-year-old serial killer, officers reviewing the case did find a DNA match for a suspect in the National DNA Data Bank. Investigators later discovered that the suspect had been staying with Colby around the time of his murder and “strongly resembled” the composite sketch that was previously released. The suspect, police say, also had a history of violence. Investigators opted not to identify the man, who died in 2015.
Barbara Brodkin Additional DNA testing led to the arrest of a 63-year-old Charles William Mustard in connection with the 1993 murder of Barbara Brodkin, a single mother who lived in Midtown. Officers were called to a home at 155 Balliol Street shortly before 8 a.m. on March 19, 1993 after receiving a call from a six-year-old boy who found his mother dead inside their apartment. Officers arrived to find the lifeless body of Brodkin, 41, who had sustained a stab wound to her chest. Police said nearly 100 witnesses were interviewed at the outset of the investigation, which ultimately went cold. The case was reopened in August 2018 and police said DNA collected at the time of the murder was sent to the Centre for Forensic Sciences for additional testing. A DNA profile was established and police identified a suspect in the murder as 63-year-old Charles William Mustard. Police said Mustard and Brodkin were acquaintances but would not elaborate further.
Ontario cold cases On April 16, 1991, at approximately 3:04 a.m., police officers responded to a 911 call at 149 Dundas Street East, just west of Jarvis Street. Responding officers located a man, later identified as 43-year-old Herbert Boone, suffering from multiple stab wounds and he was pronounced dead at the scene. In June 2023, police announced that after more than 30 years, investigators were able to positively identify the perpetrator through DNA testing. Police identified the suspect as 46-year-old Toronto resident Kevin Walsh, who died in 2007. Walsh would have been charged with second-degree murder had he still been alive, investigators said.
Melonie Biddersingh Melonie Biddersingh's charred remains were found inside a suitcase in Vaughan on Sept. 1, 1994, but police weren't able to positively identify the remains until 17 years later. Police said it was a tip from the public that ultimately led to the identification of the Toronto teen, who was originally from Jamaica. Police previously said the teen was beaten, starved and kept in a closet in a Parkdale apartment, weighing just 50 pounds at the time of her death. Murder charges were subsequently laid against the teen's father, Everton Biddersingh, and her stepmother, Elaine Biddersingh. Both have since been convicted in the teen’s murder.
