With 800 unsolved homicides, Montreal's police force is bolstering its cold case unit
Families and victims' advocates say police move too slowly on cold cases
The new head of the Montreal police force's major crimes unit is taking aim at cold cases.
Mélanie Dupont, who was appointed as the unit's commander in November, said in an interview on Tuesday that the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal will assign 16 full-time detectives to tackle unsolved homicides.
Previously, the force had six detectives assigned to cold cases, but they lacked the time to work on them because they were pulled away to help whenever there was a new murder in the city, she said.
"Mixed with the homicide unit, it's not going fast enough," Dupont said. "It's better if it's separate."
There are more than 800 unsolved homicides in the Montreal police files. Dupont said she didn't expect the improved cold case unit to solve them all, but she hoped it would be able to begin with cases where DNA had been collected.
With new tools, like genetic genealogy, where police use broader DNA databases to find suspects' relatives, Dupont said she hoped to give some resolution to families whose loved ones had been killed.
"We want the same answers as them," she said. "We want to work on that. Now we have the possibility to do it."
Dupont said the new cold case squad would use whatever tools at their disposal: in addition to genetic genealogy, there are now new DNA tools that can produce a suspect's profile from a much smaller sample. She said investigators would also solicit the public's help to push forward cases that have stalled, something they have rarely done before.
The tools have been successful elsewhere. Longueuil police notably used genetic genealogy to solve Sharron Prior's murder in 2023. Quebec provincial police also recently tracked down the man who killed 19-year-old Guylaine Potvin in 2000 using Y chromosome analysis — another new DNA tool.
Toronto police have also announced breakthroughs in cold cases thanks to genetic genealogy, but Montreal police have yet to have a similar breakthrough.
Stéphane Luce, a private investigator and president of Meurtres et Disparitions Irresolus du Quebec (MDIQ), a website that tracks unsolved murders and disappearances, said families are waiting for answers from the SPVM.
Luce said he was surprised to learn that there were only six investigators working cold cases at the SPVM and that they were being pulled to work on new cases.
"I could feel it from the families that there was no responses from the cases that are in the SPVM's court — but now I know why," he said. "The SPVM will have to prove to these families that they're working hard on their cases."
Marc Bellemare, a lawyer who has for decades represented the families of cold case victims, said the SPVM bolstering its cold case unit was good news.
He said many of the families he has represented have been frustrated by what they called a lack of transparency from the investigators and police forces working on their relative's case. He said they are all used to hearing the same tired words from police: "the investigation continues."
"Families want the best investigators, they want the best people," he said.
Manon Lisée, whose brother, Stéphane Gauthier, was kidnapped in Montreal in 1982 and found dead two days later, said she has been pushing the police for information for years.
"Every three, four years I call the police," she said. "I want news but they never have something important to tell me."
She said victims' relatives, like her, have to fight to get any information at all from police.
She, too, said the new and improved cold case squad was good news.
"It gives us hope," she said. "On the other hand, my brother is one of many."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Gloria Henriquez