SPVM goes after cold cases

The SPVM is looking over 800 unsolved murders that have piled up in its territory over 50 years.

I would want to ask: in how many of these cases did the cops know who did it, but couldn’t amass enough evidence to bring them to trial?

A little more on Tuesday from Radio‑Canada about the tripling of investigators. Two thirds of the 800 unsolved crimes date from before 2000. Selection of cases will depend which ones look solvable – whether witnesses are still alive and there’s any DNA evidence.

There’s nothing about examining biases, such as bob’s reminder that dead white girls tend to get the most attention from police and media.

I had a look at previous blog entries about cold case stories. The story of the death of Jewell Langford was resolved with the arrest of Rodney Nichols. Langford was a white woman originally from the United States who had relocated to Montreal not long before her disappearance in 1975. Another 1975 killing was Sharron Prior, a blonde girl from Point St Charles. DNA led to her probable killer, Franklin Romine, but he had died before the cold case was solved.

As far as I know, the killings of Catherine Daviau (26) and Jessica Neilson (25) in 2008 have never been solved.

Since the blog is dependent on what the media cover, I don’t think it was my bias that selected these stories of murdered young white women, but the media themselves.

The only cold case I noted that was different was the mysterious death of a young man in the West Island in 1975.