Family of woman ID'd 45 years after disappearing never gave up, niece says
Jewell Parchman Langford left her home in Tennessee for Montreal in 1975
Jewell Parchman Langford's parents and siblings died without ever finding out what had happened to her, but the Tennessee woman's surviving relatives provided the key clue that helped identify her remains — and a suspect in her killing — nearly five decades later.
"I'm heartbroken that my family didn't get to know what happened before they passed away, but I'm just so grateful that [police] didn't give up and that they kept working hard to try to solve it and figure out who she was," Langford's niece, Denise Chung, told Radio-Canada from Tennessee on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) confirmed human remains discovered east of Ottawa in 1975 were those of Langford.
Chung and some of her relatives have known since 2020, when their DNA was used to crack what Deputy Commissioner Marty Kearns described during a virtual news conference as "one of the oldest unsolved and most unique unidentified remains investigations in OPP history."
'All about spreading love and joy'
Langford was 48 when she left Madison County for Montreal, a journey of 1,200 kilometres, in April 1975.
Chung, who was 10 at the time, greatly admired her Aunt Jewell, a prominent businesswoman who opened a health spa in Jackson, Tenn., and was described Wednesday as "a woman ahead of her time."
"She was all about spreading love and joy and making people very happy to be around her," Chung recalled.
Langford, who had no children of her own and had kept her ex-husband's surname, promised to stay in touch, but the family soon lost contact and reported her missing to Montreal police.
According to Chung, her grandmother Eglah Mae Parchman didn't want Langford to go to Canada, and never really recovered from her daughter's disappearance.
"My grandmother sold everything, she spent every dime she had hiring private investigators trying to find my aunt," Chung said.
"I know that my grandmother constantly called the local FBI … pushing and pushing because she did not want them to forget about Aunt Jewell, and she did not want to ever quit searching, and she did not quit searching until she passed away."
Family joined search
Chung's uncle Ronald Parchman travelled to Montreal to join the search for his sister, but returned to Tennessee only with Langford's Cadillac, which police had recovered. Langford's ex-husband Atlas also became involved in the search, Chung said.
Among the presenters at Wednesday's news conference was Janice Mulcock, a retired OPP detective.
Mulcock was described by another speaker "one of the many investigators who had been assigned to the case over the years who became personally invested in finding out who the Nation River Lady was, and who killed her."
Chung said she's grateful that the case stayed on the minds of the OPP,
Mulcock credited Langford's family for knowing that something was wrong when she failed to stay in touch.
"Unfortunately, that was a promise she was unable to keep. Her family and friends knew something was terribly wrong. She loved them dearly and was devoted to all of them, and they knew it," Mulcock said.
In May 1975, mere weeks after Langford left home, an unidentified woman's body showing obvious signs of foul play was discovered in the Nation River near Casselman, Ont. Police surmised someone had dumped the body from a nearby bridge.
For the next 45 years, she would be known only as the Nation River Lady.
New DNA methods
On Wednesday, OPP said they never abandoned their efforts to identify the Nation River Lady, pointing to "multiple" public appeals for help over the intervening years, including the release in 2017 of a 3D "facial approximation" based on the remains.
"Dedicated members of our local crime unit in the criminal investigation branch have always believed this case was solvable, that we would one day identify the person who became known as the Nation River Lady," Kearns said Wednesday.
"Historic homicide investigations and investigations of missing persons where foul play is suspected are never closed."
It took the arrival of new DNA technology to finally crack the case, investigators said. In 2019, the Nation River Lady's body was exhumed and a new DNA profile was created and analyzed by a genealogical research firm that works with U.S. law enforcement.
When a potential match was found, investigators asked some of Langford's surviving relatives for DNA samples to confirm their suspicions.
Several, including Chung, readily agreed. It was a nerve-wracking process.
"I was very hopeful that it would be a match but I was also very nervous ... I didn't want to let myself believe it all the way until we were told that it was definitely her," she told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning on Thursday.
LISTEN: Denise Chung's full interview with Ottawa Morning
'Finally home and at peace'
Investigators finally identified Langford in 2020. They informed her surviving relatives, but didn't make it public until now.
They have also charged Rodney Nichols, 81, with murder. Nichols resides in Florida, where he's currently the subject of an extradition request.
Radio-Canada has confirmed Langford and Nichols lived together at the time of her disappearance in 1975.
It remains unclear why a connection wasn't made at the time between Langford's reported disappearance and the discovery of a woman's body just 150 kilometres away.
"I'm very happy and grateful that we know that she's finally at home, but I would love to see justice carried out and the person that did this … be held responsible for the crime," Chung said.
She also thanked investigators for sticking with the case and giving Langford's remaining family some measure of closure.
"I hate it that it wasn't [solved earlier], but … I honestly just have to sing praises that no one forgot about her and that they didn't just drop that as a cold case and not proceed," she said.
Langford's grave marker, which used to read "Missing, but not forgotten," now reads, "Finally home and at peace."
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With files from Daniel Leblanc, Denis Babin, and CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning