36 years after Christine Jessop's murder, her mother speaks about finally getting 'closure'
Janet Jessop says she never once gave up hope as police investigated her daughter's rape and killing
Thirty-six years after she learned her little girl had been raped and stabbed to death, Janet Jessop says she never once gave up hope that her daughter's killer would be found.
In an interview with CBC News the mother of Christine Jessop, a nine-year-old girl who was abducted north of Toronto in 1984, said the support of friends and community members helped the family get through some of their darkest times.
"You just push on. You just keep going. There was some rough times, some very rough times, but we all just stuck together and lived in hope," Jessop told CBC News. "We couldn't have really done it ourselves without friends and supporters in the neighbourhood."
"Never give up, you just can't give up," she said. "That's not fair to Christine or the child who's been murdered."
WATCH | Christine Jessop's mother speaks after nine-year-old's killer identified 36 years later:
Police said Thursday that Calvin Hoover, a Toronto man who was 28 at the time of Jessop's death, was found to be the girl's killer through a relatively new DNA analysis process called genetic genealogy.
Sources told the CBC's The Fifth Estate that Hoover died by suicide in 2015.
Police say Hoover was acquainted with Jessop's family but was never identified as a suspect.
"I am very glad that it's over now. The end has come. We have now some closure," said Jessop. "And that was very, very important to get."
WATCH | Janet Jessop on what she would say to her daughter's killer if he were alive:
