One of Canada’s best-known cold cases has been cracked, with ramifications in Ontario, Quebec, Florida and Tennessee.
Found dead after being dropped from a bridge on Highway 417 between Montreal and Ottawa in 1975, an unidentified woman was known for decades by a single moniker: “Nation River Lady.”
According to information obtained by Radio-Canada, the victim has now been identified as Jewell Parchman Langford, a longtime resident of Tennessee who was 48 at the time of her death.
Her identity was recently uncovered by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), which also laid a murder charge against Rodney Nichols, a man who had been among Langford’s acquaintances in Montreal in the 1970s.
Nichols is now 81 and residing in Florida, where he is the subject of an extradition request.
Mysterious disappearance
Langford came from a family of seven in Madison County, where her parents owned a farm.
While she was in Canada at the time of her disappearance, Langford had long worked in the fitness industry in Jackson, Tenn. According to local newspapers, she and her then husband Atlas Langford had opened a centre dedicated to exercise and weight loss called the Imperial Health Spa in 1972.
Const. Duncan Way, left, and Const. Guy Prévost, right, hoped the reconstruction would look enough like the victim that people who knew her would recognize her face. (Denis Babin/Radio-Canada)
According to a source, Jewell Langford was reported missing in the spring of 1975 to police authorities in Montreal, where she had recently moved.
She’s believed to have been seen for the last time at the end of April 1975, and police started to look into her disappearance later that May. Montreal police investigated the case but never solved it.
According to the source, the “link was never made” between this missing woman in Montreal and the body that was found about 150 kilometres west, near Highway 417 in Casselman, Ont., on May 3, 1975.
At the time of her discovery, the woman’s decomposed body was wrapped in scraps of cloth, towels and rags, while her hands and feet were bound with neckties, according to OPP. She could have been thrown from the bridge over the highway, where traces of blood were found, into the Nation River, police said.
Rodney Nichols was a well-known rugby player among fans of the sport in Montreal, mainly among the English-speaking community in the western portion of the city.
According to documents filed at the courthouse in L’Orignal, Ont., east of Ottawa, he was formally charged with Langford’s homicide on Sept. 8, 2022.
OPP never publicly announced the laying of the charge in this case, which was initially subject to a publication ban pending Nichols’s return to Canada. The publication ban has since been lifted, but the case had not yet been reported in the media.
The gravestone of Jewell Parchman Langford at a cemetery in Jackson, Tenn. (Denis Babin/Radio-Canada)
Nichols currently resides in Hollywood, Fla., and is the subject of an extradition request by Canadian authorities. He has yet to appear in court in connection with this charge and has not entered a plea.
Nichols could not be reached for comment at his residence in Florida.
OPP spokesperson Bill Dickson said he had no further comment on the matter, as did a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Case reopened
The filing of a murder charge in this case came after the OPP decided in the mid-2010s to reopen the cold case.
In 2017, OPP experts unveiled a three-dimensional clay bust based on the body found in the Nation River in 1975, hoping to generate tips about her identity.
However, the breakthrough came from the use of DNA testing and genetic genealogy, which helped OPP to identify the victim. Once they had Langford’s name, investigators were able to make significant progress on the case.
For years, Langford’s unidentified body remained in Canada while a plaque commemorating her disappearance was installed at a cemetery in Jackson, Tenn.
“Missing, but not forgotten,” it read.
After Langford was identified, her body was brought back to the United States and laid to rest under a new monument that says, “Finally home and at peace.”
Radio-Canada made contact with Langford’s family, but a spokesperson said they are withholding comment for now at the request of law enforcement.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
