5 Canadian cold cases solved with help of genetic genealogy
Genetics can help investigators identify suspects — whether living or dead
In recent years, Canadian police have looked to genetic genealogy to help solve cold cases dating back decades.
The technique is relatively new and is continuing to make headlines — including this past week, when it was revealed that the 1975 murder of a Montreal teenager had finally been solved.
Sharron Prior had never been forgotten in the decades that followed her death. Police questioned scores of people, but an arrest was never made.
Almost five decades later police say her killer has been identified through investigative efforts that included genetic genealogy — a technique whereby genetic database information is used to look at potential family lineages, in this case in a criminal investigation context.
Here's a brief look at other cold cases where the same investigative technique has been used.
A long-awaited name
In February, police in Windsor, Ont., revealed the name of a man investigators say abducted and killed six-year-old Ljubica Topic in the border city in 1971.
Windsor police had revealed in 2019 that the killer had been identified and that he was deceased. His name was not disclosed until this year.
Police named Frank Arthur Hall as the man responsible for her death. He lived on the same road as the Topic family. Hall died in Edmonton in 2019.
Investigators used genetic genealogy in their efforts to identify Hall, police said.
An arrest 4 decades after attack
In July 1981, a man grabbed, dragged and sexually assaulted a teenager in northeast Edmonton.
Forty-one years later, police in that city announced that an arrest had been made.
An investigator from the Edmonton force's historical crimes unit was assigned to review the case in 2018.
Investigators then pursued genetic genealogy in 2021 and found their way to the suspect.
Arrest made in 2 cases from 1983
Two separate, long-unsolved homicides that claimed the lives of Torontonians in 1983 received renewed attention last fall, when police announced the arrest of a suspect.
Police said the killings of 45-year-old Susan Tice and 22-year-old Erin Gilmour had been tied to a still-living 61-year-old suspect.
It had been known since 2000 that DNA linked a single individual to both killings.
But a cold-case investigator told reporters that genetic genealogy had been key to identifying the suspect, now charged with first-degree murder in both women's deaths.
A 36-year wait for the truth
In October 2020, Toronto police announced that investigators had identified the killer of nine-year-old Christine Jessop.
Thirty-six years earlier, Jessop's abduction, sexual assault and murder had led to an intensive investigation.
A neighbour, Guy Paul Morin, was subsequently arrested and wrongfully convicted in her death. He was later cleared.
Decades later, the application of genetic genealogy led police to identify Calvin Hoover as Jessop's likely killer. Hoover was deceased by the time this identification occurred.
With files from the CBC's Thomas Daigle, Matthew Lapierre, Lucas Powers and Lisa Xing