Cold murder case brought back to life
By Bruce Haire

OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino briefed the media on the two murder investigations dating back to the 1960s Tuesday.

Ontario Provincial Police called a press conference Tuesday morning, reactivating two unsolved cases, including a body found on the 17th Sideroad of New Tecumseth near Schomberg almost 40 years ago.

The deaths of two young men have been linked by new information to violent attacks that were taking place at the time in the homosexual community of Toronto. Two cases at the time had been resolved and could be directly linked to these cases.

Serious attacks during the same period were taking place on young men in the Church and Wellesley area of Toronto.

The skeleton of one victim was found in December 1967 by a partridge hunter in Balsam Lake Provincial Park near Coboconk, east of Lake Simcoe.

In May 1968, the body of the second young man was found by a farmer on the 17th Sideroad of Tecumseth between the 2nd and 3rd Lines.

Laurent Trudeau of Main Street in Schomberg found the body after working a field. He had thrown a can of oil off to the side while plowing and when he went over to retrieve it, he spotted the body in a hedgerow, according to OPP reports at the time.

He then went to the nearby farmhouse of Beverley Wray and the Alliston detachment of OPP was called. Trudeau worked for the Schomberg Alfalfa Company at the time.

Both bodies were naked with hands bound behind their backs. A pair of white running shoes was found near the Tecumseth body.

Both young victims, neither of whom have been identified, are both thought to be small; five feet five to five feet six. The shoes were size seven.

Police at the time noted the similar circumstances.

The second victim was a young person whose wisdom teeth had not developed. He had long brown hair.

At Tuesday's news conference at OPP headquarters in Orillia, police showed historical photos, records and maps. A facial reconstruction expert had made models of the men's skulls. With new DNA techniques applied to the remains and other leads, the cases are being reactivated.

A person of interest is a man who carried out two similar assaults on young men in July 1967. Both men were picked up in Toronto's gay village, taken to rural areas, assaulted and left naked, one with hands bound behind the back. The one young man survived. The sexual predator was convicted of manslaughter and attempted murder in 1968.

A reconstructionist produced these models of what the two unidentified victims might have looked like.

He was convicted again of first degree murder in a case that took place in Vancouver. This time it was a woman who was murdered. She again was taken to a rural area, assaulted, murdered, left naked with hands bound. He remains in penitentiary, but is now eligible for parole, according to police.

OPP have 108 unidentified people in cases dating from 1939 in their data bank.

They picked this case to kick off their Resolve Initiative because of the ability to retrieve DNA from these bodies and positively identify them, said Detective Inspector Dave Quigley.

The OPP have put up $50,000 rewards in each case leading to a conviction. However, they are asking

the public to think back 40 years and remember if a relative, friend, or neighbour went missing.

New OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said that with new science, new techniques, new awareness, they need a data bank for matching the DNA of missing persons and found remains and he wants to