36 year old cold case solved!

Buzz

Buzz

Socialist Canada
Messages
38,960
Christine Jessop was just nine years old when she was killed. Her neighbour Guy Paul Morin was accused of her murder But eventually exonerated. This was all over the news here many years ago. Today the police announced they have solved the case. Thanks to advances in DNA technology they were able to name Calvin Hoover as her killer.
 
Wow I remember this case. So glad they found out who did it.

I really feel for the Jessop’s, Mr Morin and the family of Mr Hoover.

Such a horrible story. Glad there’s an ending at least
 
Buzz said:
Christine Jessop was just nine years old when she was killed. Her neighbour Guy Paul Morin was accused of her murder But eventually exonerated. This was all over the news here many years ago. Today the police announced they have solved the case. Thanks to advances in DNA technology they were able to name Calvin Hoover as her killer.
Click to expand...

I read a very good book about this case by Kirk Makin (former crime/legal reporter with the Globe and Mail newspaper). It was quite scary how the police gradually came to suspect Morin as the killer, not because he had any previous crime record, but because he lived in the same neighbourhood and was "weird" - was single, lived with his parents, had an odd way of speaking, and so on. And then they interpreted the evidence they had through that frame of perception, and were able to convince the judge and jury to believe that wrong version of events.

It's sad for the family that the case has been closed this way, but it must be a relief to them and to Morin to finally know who did it.
 
In the States, law enforcement has been very successful in solving cold cases by utilizing familial genealogy websites as well as DNA.

Whatever legal means it takes to bring justice for the victims, their family & friends, for those wrongly accused or incarcerated & for the police investigation teams, many of whom also suffer emotionally trying to solve these crimes.
 
Wow that is huge. I too remember this story. A man wrongly convicted. I know that the brother has been tormented by it for years and it has severely impacted his life (he has a facebook page for her). The worst thing with an unsolved murder case is for a family not knowing. I wonder how they pieced it together since the guy died in 2015 by suicide.
 
Judy said:
Wow that is huge. I too remember this story. A man wrongly convicted. I know that the brother has been tormented by it for years and it has severely impacted his life (he has a facebook page for her). The worst thing with an unsolved murder case is for a family not knowing. I wonder how they pieced it together since the guy died in 2015 by suicide.
Click to expand...
With more people getting DNA tests and publishing them so they can find lost relatives, there are more ways to link crime scene DNA to possible relatives of the perpetrator. If you have a way to view it, the US show “The Genetic Detective” does a good job of explaining how it’s done.
 
Morin spent 18 Months in prison, not years.... although he was under that cloud of suspicion for around 10 years. Still, way too long for a case as flimsy as the one that convicted him.

I was shocked when I read the headline yesterday that her murder was solved. Shocked and relieved but so happy for the Jessops and Morin, that it was finally solved, even though this news will bring up all those feelings for them again. It was a very famous case that was everywhere on the news.
 
Judy said:
The worst thing with an unsolved murder case is for a family not knowing. I wonder how they pieced it together since the guy died in 2015 by suicide.
Click to expand...

For the family, yes that's awful. But it's much bigger than that - as long as a case is unsolved, particularly in crimes where the perpetrators are so often repeat offenders, then there is always the fear that they may strike again. In one article I read, the current mayor of Jessop's community talked about that, what a relief it is to know that the unknown perpetrator is no longer a threat, and that he's not one of their neighbours or friends or coworkers hiding in plain sight.

And I don't think this is correct. As I understand it, he actually spent very little time in jail between his initial arrest in 1985 and his exoneration in 1995 as much of that time was spent in trials and appeals. That being said, even when exonerated, there is always a cloud over the wrongfully convicted - some believing that they either did do it or at least must have done something awful for police to think it was them, not to mention years of normal life lost.
Judy said:
This explains a little more about how they solved it. Guy Morin spent 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
globalnews.ca

DNA solves 1984 murder of Christine Jessop, suspect dead: Toronto police | Globalnews.ca

The nine-year-old went missing on Oct. 3, 1984 in Queensville, Ont., and her remains were found three months later on New Year's Eve in a rural part of Durham Region.
globalnews.ca globalnews.ca
Click to expand...
 
overedge said:
I read a very good book about this case by Kirk Makin (former crime/legal reporter with the Globe and Mail newspaper). It was quite scary how the police gradually came to suspect Morin as the killer, not because he had any previous crime record, but because he lived in the same neighbourhood and was "weird" - was single, lived with his parents, had an odd way of speaking, and so on. And then they interpreted the evidence they had through that frame of perception, and were able to convince the judge and jury to believe that wrong version of events.

It's sad for the family that the case has been closed this way, but it must be a relief to them and to Morin to finally know who did it.
Click to expand...

This sounds like the movie Clint Eastwood (?) directed with Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. Tim's character was the neighborhood oddball so suspicion fell on him.
 
Jenny said:
For the family, yes that's awful. But it's much bigger than that - as long as a case is unsolved, particularly in crimes where the perpetrators are so often repeat offenders, then there is always the fear that they may strike again. In one article I read, the current mayor of Jessop's community talked about that, what a relief it is to know that the unknown perpetrator is no longer a threat, and that he's not one of their neighbours or friends or coworkers hiding in plain sight.

And I don't think this is correct. As I understand it, he actually spent very little time in jail between his initial arrest in 1985 and his exoneration in 1995 as much of that time was spent in trials and appeals. That being said, even when exonerated, there is always a cloud over the wrongfully convicted - some believing that they either did do it or at least must have done something awful for police to think it was them, not to mention years of normal life lost.
Click to expand...

Yes correct. Absolutely there is fear when a murderer is not found. Here’s another link to the trial etc.
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca

Guy Paul Morin Case

The Guy Paul Morin case was the second major wrongful conviction case to occur in the modern era of the Canadian criminal justice system. The case was rid...
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
 
I was just reading about a cold case in Washington state, involving a young couple from British Columbia who were murdered in 1987. That case was solved when a relative of the killer did one of those online DNA tests. The detectives on the case took the DNA profile they had from one of the victims, and ran it through a public online DNA database. This woman's DNA was a very close match, and she was his cousin. They were able to identify the killer through that genetic connection, even though his own DNA wasn't posted online.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 3 (members: 0, guests: 3)
Back
Top
Do Not Sell My Personal Information