A 61-year-old man has been charged within the chilly case killings of two girls who have been discovered lifeless of their Toronto houses inside months of one another nearly 4 many years in the past, police mentioned Monday.
Police Chief James Ramer mentioned Joseph George Sutherland, of Moosonee, Ontario, was arrested Thursday and charged with first-degree homicide within the killings of Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice in 1983.
"As happy as we're to announce this arrest, it can by no means convey Erin or Susan again, and on behalf of the Toronto Police Service, I wish to once more categorical my condolences to their households," Ramer mentioned in a assertion. "After 39 years of dogged police work, our investigators have made positive this particular person will reply for these heinous crimes."
Each girls had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to demise, Ramer mentioned. Though their our bodies have been found 4 months aside, detectives linked the deaths utilizing DNA expertise in 2000, and investigators suspected the identical man in each circumstances, he mentioned.
Gilmour, 22, was an aspiring designer and the daughter of David Gilmour, who co-founded Barrick, which was the world's greatest gold mining firm earlier than it was overtaken in 2019 by rival Newmont.
The 45-year-old Tice was a household therapist and a mom of 4.
Police Detective-Sgt. Steve Smith mentioned advances in science allowed them to slender down a suspect household, then a suspect. He mentioned police in 2000 had linked the 2 murders by means of the suspect's DNA left on the scene.
Then lately, he mentioned, "we have been in a position to make use of investigative genetic family tree to slender down a suspect household. And from there we have been capable of slender down a suspect."
Smith famous that the suspect had not been an individual of curiosity within the killings. "If we hadn't utilized this expertise, we by no means would have got here to his identify," Smith mentioned.
Police need to see if Sutherland is linked to some other circumstances.
Smith mentioned Sutherland was residing in Toronto on the time of the deaths. He mentioned there's a publication ban on the case and declined to launch extra particulars.
On behalf of the victims' households, Erin's brother Sean McCowan shared their reduction after 39 years: "Erin and Susan are lastly getting their day."
"This can be a day that I, and we, have been ready nearly a whole lifetime for," McCowan mentioned. "In a way, there is a reduction that somebody has been arrested. But it additionally brings again so many recollections of Erin and her brutal, mindless homicide."
Sutherland is subsequent set to seem in courtroom on Dec. 9.
AFP contributed to this report.