Warning: This article contains details that may be disturbing to some readers.
Nearly 30 years after a 10-year-old girl went missing, a Quebec inmate is charged with her murder. A daughter faces her mother’s alleged killer in court — her father. Two DNA tests, conducted four decades following a seamstress’s brutal death, result in an arrest and conviction.
These are some of the cold cases in Canada that saw breakthroughs in 2023.
But many crimes and disappearances remain unsolved. More than 2,500 adults and children in Canada are missing, based on the Canadian national RCMP database, said Jan Guppy, who created the Facebook group Unidentified Human Remains Canada.
Guppy, from the Montreal area, said 378 people who are missing are unidentified. Guppy said the figures are “way too low and completely inaccurate” because provinces are not required to provide numbers.
Here are some of the Canadian cold cases that saw breakthroughs in 2023 as well as some of those that remain unsolved in 2024:
BREAKTHROUGH IN KILLING OF QUEBEC GIRL
“Innovative methods” in forensic biology are being credited with helping investigators arrest a suspect in the killing of a 10-year-old Quebec girl nearly 30 years ago.
The suspect was identified and arrested following “the meticulous, long-term work” of investigators and forensic staff, according to the Quebec police force’s press release.
Marie-Chantale Desjardins, 10, was last seen on her bike leaving her friend’s home at about 9:30 p.m. in Sainte-Thérèse, Que., on July 16, 1994. Witnesses reported spotting her that day at a local billiard bar that police said she had frequented.
Days later, her body was found in a wooded area behind a shopping centre in the nearby municipality of Rosemère. Pathologists suspect she was strangled.
Twenty-nine years after she disappeared, there was a breakthrough in the cold case on Dec. 12, 2023. Réal Courtemanche, 61, was arrested at a medium-security prison about 190 kilometres northwest of Montreal, and charged with first-degree murder, according to police.
N.L. HUSBAND CHARGED WITH WIFE’S MURDER
Jennifer Hillier-Penney was separating from her husband when she disappeared in 2016 — a case that shocked the small town of St. Anthony, N.L.
The last time Hillier-Penney was seen was Nov. 30, 2016, when her sister dropped her off at her estranged husband Dean Penney’s house so she could spend time with their daughter.
Seven years later on Dec. 15, 2023, RCMP charged her estranged husband, Penney, with first-degree murder in connection with her disappearance. Police called the high-profile case one of the longest and most complex investigations. Police are still searching for Hillier-Penney’s remains.
DNA SAMPLES LEAD TO CONVICTION
Soon after Montreal native Sonia Herok-Stone moved to the tiny California town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, she was found partially naked, bloodied and strangled to death with her pantyhose in 1981, according to Det. Lins Dorman.
Police questioned Michael Glazebrook, a 25-year-old married tradesman who lived across the street. He denied killing the 30-year-old seamstress, but said he was having an affair with her and was at her house the day of the murder.
In 1982, he was charged with first-degree murder in her death. However, a judge ruled Glazebrook’s statement was inadmissible because police violated his rights by picking him up on traffic warrants.
Although Glazebrook’s trial ended in a hung jury in 1983, the Monterey County District Attorney’s office re-opened the case in 2020. A search warrant allowed police to get a sample of his DNA in 2021. The blood under the victim’s fingernail was a match and Glazebrook was charged with first-degree murder for the second time. Months later, police also collected a DNA sample from Herok-Stone’s breast swabs that matched with Glazebrook’s DNA.
More than 40 years on, the two DNA samples led to his conviction in February 2023. Glazebrook was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole in June. The school bus driver, 67, has never confessed.
‘NATION RIVER LADY’ IDENTIFIED
For nearly 50 years, the identity of the “Nation River Lady” remained a mystery. A farmer discovered the woman’s remains floating in the Nation River in eastern Ontario on May 3, 1975.
Green cloth covered her body. Her hands and feet were bound with neckties.
Thanks to genealogical DNA testing meant to find genetic matches, the U.S. non-profit DNA Doe Project (DDP) announced in July 5, 2023 that it had identified the woman as Jewell “Lalla” Parchman Langford, 48, a businesswoman from Jackson, Tenn. That same day, the Ontario Provincial Police revealed that they had charged Rodney Nichols, 81, of Hollywood, Fla., with murder in September 2022. They said they delayed the public announcement to avoid jeopardizing the investigation and court process. Police said the victim and accused knew each other.
The OPP worked with experts to exhume the body and create a new DNA profile in late 2019 that eventually led to confirmation in 2020 that Langford was the “Nation River Lady.” Her remains were finally buried after they were repatriated to the U.S. in March 2022.
The defence is seeking a fitness assessment order so that experts can assess whether Nichols is fit to stand trial since he has dementia, his Toronto-based lawyer Laura Metcalfe told CTVNews.ca in an email.
ARREST IN 50-YEAR-OLD CASE
New DNA technology helped OPP lay charges against a 78-year-old man in the 1973 death of a woman from the northern First Nation of Attawapiskat. Helen Carpenter, 21, was found dead on Oct. 23, 1973.
An investigation turned up no charges at that time, police said.
Fifty years after her death, Remi Gregory Iahtail of Attawapiskat, who was 28 when Carpenter disappeared, was charged with manslaughter and rape in October.
The case will be heard at Attawapiskat Ontario Court of Justice on Jan. 17,, 2024.
CREE WOMAN’S DEATH RAISES SUSPICIONS
More than three years after Chelsea Poorman went missing from downtown Vancouver in 2020, her family and Indigenous advocates are still searching for answers.
Poorman, 24, was last seen near Granville and Drake streets around midnight on Sept. 7, 2020.
A member of the Kawacatoose First Nation in Saskatchewan, she had just moved to Vancouver at that time.
Nearly two years after she disappeared, Poorman’s remains were discovered in an abandoned mansion in the upscale Shaughnessy neighbourhood on April 22, 2022.
Her mother Sheila said her daughter’s remains were found in a blanket on the balcony, missing some fingers and her cranium.
Vancouver officials have not revealed how she died and police said there isn’t enough evidence to call her death suspicious.
Sonya Cywink of London, Ont., was 24 weeks pregnant when her body was discovered in 1994. Police said she was last seen alive at about 2 a.m. on Aug. 26, 1994. Four days later, her body was found at the Southwold Earthworks National Historic Site of Canada, southwest of London.
She was originally from the Whitefish River First Nation territory on Manitoulin Island.
“We’re still out there looking for leads, looking for people to come forward,” the victim’s sister Meggie Cywink told CTV News in October 2023.
LETTER WRITER ADMITS TO KILLING
In an anonymous letter to Vancouver police, a writer admitted to killing an Indigenous sex trade worker, whom the person didn’t name, who had disappeared on Nov. 30, 2002 and apologized to her family.
Police received it on Dec. 31, 2002, a month after Danielle Marissa Lynn Larue went missing. Though the body of Larue was never found and she wasn’t explicitly named, police believe she was murdered.
Police believe the letter writer knows where her body is buried and hope the person will contact them again.
Larue was in foster care, ran away when she was just 13 in Prince George, B.C., and turned to drugs to cope with her trauma of being abused as a child, they added. Larue, who was 24 when she disappeared, became a sex trade worker in Vancouver to support her drug addiction, police said.
With files from CTVNews.ca, CTV National News, W5, CTV News Regina, CTVNewsLondon.ca, CTV News London, CTVNorthernOntario.ca, CTVNewsVancouver.ca, CTVNewsMontreal.ca and The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER – Jesse Marsch issued Canada’s men’s soccer squad a challenge — get physical.
The edict came after the Canadians surprised many at this summer’s Copa America tournament, making it through to the semifinals. As his players departed for their professional clubs, the head coach wanted them thinking about continued growth.
“I challenged them to be more physically present in the matches that they played in,” Marsch said. “I’ve tried to encourage all the players to sprint more, to win more duels, to win more balls, to be more dynamic in matches.”
When Canada reconvened for a pair of friendlies last week, the coach saw some players had already heeded his call, including Vancouver Whitecaps product Ali Ahmed.
The 23-year-old midfielder started in both Canada’s 2-1 victory over the United States on Saturday and Tuesday’s 0-0 draw against Mexico.
“I’m really happy for him,” Marsch said. “I think he’s still young and still has a lot of room and potential to continue to grow.”
Playing under Marsch — who took over as head coach in May — has been a boon for the young athlete, currently in his second full season with Major League Soccer’s Whitecaps.
“Jesse has a very clear way of playing,” Ahmed said. “And I think the way we’ve been training and the way we’ve been growing as a group, it’s been helpful for me.”
The reward of getting minutes for a national team can spur a player’s growth, including Ahmed, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini.
“Of course that fuels him inside to say ‘Hey, I want to be a better player. I want to get to that stage,'” said Sartini.
Vancouver had six players — including Ahmed — away on international duty during its 0-0 draw against Dallas FC on Saturday. The absences are a good problem to have, Sartini said.
“Because we have players that are close to the national team, we have a lot of players that development is faster, better, bigger than it would have been if they hadn’t been called,” he said.
Born in Toronto, Ahmed came up through the Whitecaps’ academy system and played for Vancouver’s MLS Next Pro side before cementing his spot on the first team in 2023. He put up two goals and two assists across 22 regular-season games, and added another goal and another helper in 19 appearances this year.
Taking the next step will require the five-foot-11, 154-pound Ahmed to push himself physically, Marsch said.
“Tactically, he’s technically gifted,” the coach said. “I’ve told him he’s got to get in the gym more.
“There’s a lot of these little things where too many guys, they still look like kids and we need to help them look like men and play like men. And that’s what the high standards of the game are about.”
Marsch has quickly adjusted to recalibrating standards in his short time with Team Canada. Since taking over the squad in May, the coach said he’s learned the players are smarter and more capable than he originally thought, which forces the coach to constantly recalibrate his standards.
“That’s my job right now, to keep raising the level of the demands,” he said.
The way 40th-ranked Canada is viewed on the international stage is evolving, too.
“I think we’re changing the perception on the way we’re playing now,” he said. “I think beating the U.S. — it would have been nice to beat Mexico as well — the way we did, the way that we performed at Copa, I think teams are starting to look at us differently.
“Right now, I think we’re focused on ourselves. We’re definitely trying to be the best in CONCACAF and we have higher goals as well.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
An investigator gave the World Anti-Doping Agency a pass on its handling of the inflammatory case involving Chinese swimmers, but not without hammering away at the “curious” nature of WADA’s “silence” after examining Chinese actions that did not follow rules designed to safeguard global sports.
WADA on Thursday released the full decision from Eric Cottier, the Swiss investigator it appointed to analyze its handling of the case involving the 23 Chinese swimmers who remained eligible despite testing positive for performance enhancers in 2021.
In echoing wording from an interim report issued earlier this summer, Cottier said it was “reasonable” that WADA chose not to appeal the Chinese anti-doping agency’s explanation that the positives came from contamination.
“Taking into consideration the particularities of the case, (WADA) appears … to have acted in accordance with the rules it has itself laid out for anti-doping organizations,” Cottier wrote.
But peppered throughout his granular, 56-page analysis of the case was evidence and reminders of how WADA disregarded some of China’s violations of anti-doping protocols. Cottier concluded this happened more for the sake of expediency than to show favoritism toward the Chinese.
“In retrospect at least, the Agency’s silence is curious, in the face of a procedure that does not respect the fundamental rules, and its lack of reaction is surprising,” Cottier wrote of WADA’s lack of fealty to the world anti-doping code.
Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and one of WADA’s fiercest critics, latched onto this dynamic, saying Cottier’s information “clearly shows that China did not follow the rules, and that WADA management did nothing about it.”
One of the chief complaints over the handling of this case was that neither WADA nor the Chinese gave any public notice upon learning of the positive tests for the banned heart medication Temozolomide, known as TMZ.
The athletes also were largely kept in the dark and the burden to prove their innocence was taken up by Chinese authorities, not the athletes themselves, which runs counter to what the rulebook demands.
Despite the criticisms, WADA generally welcomed the report.
“Above all, (Cottier) reiterated that WADA showed no bias towards China and that its decision not to appeal the cases was reasonable based on the evidence,” WADA director general Olivier Niggli said. “There are however certainly lessons to be learned by WADA and others from this situation.”
Tygart said “this report validates our concerns and only raises new questions that must be answered.”
Cottier expanded on doubts WADA’s own chief scientist, Olivier Rabin, had expressed over the Chinese contamination theory — snippets of which were introduced in the interim report. Rabin was wary of the idea that “a few micrograms” of TMZ found in the kitchen at the hotel where the swimmers stayed could be enough to cause the group contamination.
“Since he was not in a position to exclude the scenario of contamination with solid evidence, he saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities,” Cottier wrote.
Though recommendations for changes had been expected in the report, Cottier made none, instead referring to several comments he’d made earlier in the report.
Key among them were his misgivings that a case this big was largely handled in private — a breach of custom, if not the rules themselves — both while China was investigating and after the file had been forwarded to WADA. Not until the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD reported on the positives were any details revealed.
“At the very least, the extraordinary nature of the case (23 swimmers, including top-class athletes, 28 positive tests out of 60 for a banned substance of therapeutic origin, etc.), could have led to coordinated and concerted reflection within the Agency, culminating in a formal and clearly expressed decision to take no action,” the report said.
WADA’s executive committee established a working group to address two more of Cottier’s criticisms — the first involving what he said was essentially WADA’s sloppy recordkeeping and lack of formal protocol, especially in cases this complex; and the second a need to better flesh out rules for complex cases involving group contamination.
MANCHESTER, United Kingdom – Canada’s top male tennis players have defeated Finland 3-0 in the group stage of the Davis Cup Final.
Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., beat Eero Vasa 7-6 (2), 6-2 in Tuesday’s first singles match. Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime then dispatched Otto Virtanen 6-2, 6-3 in the second singles match.
With the tie already won thanks to the two singles victories, Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime teamed up to best Virtanen and Harri Heliovaara 6-2, 7-5 in doubles play.
There was an element of revenge after Canada lost to Finland in last year’s quarterfinals.
“Everybody’s in good spirits, so it’s very good,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Any motivation is good, but I think it’s a different year, a different time, and (last year’s loss) was behind us. This year we have a full team and everybody’s playing better than last year. Everybody’s improved.”
It’s the second consecutive group-stage tie Canada has won after beating Argentina 2-1 on Tuesday. Canada, the lone seeded team in Group D, will face host Great Britain on Sunday.
Four groups of teams are playing in four cities this week to qualify for the eight-team Finals in Malaga, Spain, in November. The top two countries in each four-team group advance.
Since Canada’s undefeated after two opponents in the group stage, it is set to advance to the Davis Cup Finals.
“Couldn’t ask for more today, super proud of the team,” said captain Frank Dancevic. “Great team spirit, amazing bench team spirit, and fans pushing us through the day.”
It is Canada’s fifth consecutive appearance in the Davis Cup Finals, having won its only title in 2022. The Canadians defeated South Korea 3-1 in February’s Davis Cup qualifiers in Montreal to reach the group stage of the finals.
— With files from The Associated Press.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
