Convicted child killer found dead in cell

A London, Ont., man who pleaded guilty to the murder of a 12-year-old girl who disappeared almost 40 years ago was found dead in his cell.

Ontario Provincial Police confirmed Barry Manion died early Friday morning at a correctional facility near Timmins, Ont.

"Mr. Barry Manion, convicted murderer, was located in his cell at approximately 5 o'clock this morning," said Ontario Provincial Police Const. Marc Depatie. "He was vital signs absent at that time.

"The nature by which Mr. Manion died is still subject to investigation," Depatie said.

"We do not speculate on the cause of death until such time as a thorough post-mortem examination and the results from that examination have been made available to the Ontario Provincial Police."

This week, the 61-year-old received a life sentence for second-degree murder with no possibility of parole for 10 years in Katherine May Wilson's 1970 disappearance in Kirkland Lake.

Her body has never been found.

Manion was arrested in January and initially charged with first-degree murder, abduction and forcible confinement.

Manion, who most recently lived in London, resided in Kirkland Lake when Wilson went missing on Oct. 10, 1970. He is a distant cousin of the missing girl, her family has said.

Wilson had been picking up groceries for her mother, Aline Wilson, on the afternoon she went missing on the town's outskirts. She called home just before 5 p.m. to ask whether she could buy a can of pop or a bag of chips with the leftover change.

Her mother agreed, and Katherine said she was going to walk home. Katherine's two sisters walked out to meet her halfway, but the girl never showed up.

The case went cold until it was re-opened in 2006.

Manion, who had co-operated with police since his arrest, told investigators he offered the girl a ride home, but instead took her to a wooded area because he wanted to have sex with her.

Manion said Katherine refused and ran away, but he caught up with the girl. He told police he started choking her to make her stop screaming, killing her. He said he left the body in the woods.