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
MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.
Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.
A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.
Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.
Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.
The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.
Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.
“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.
“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”
McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.
“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”
Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.
Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.
“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”
Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.
Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.
“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”
The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.
Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.
Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.
“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.
The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”
Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.
That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.
New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.
The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.
The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.
“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”
Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.
So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?
“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.
“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”
