A Canadian man who died in 2019 has been recognized because the perpetrator of three chilly case homicides in Toronto, and investigators imagine there could possibly be extra victims.
Toronto police said Thursday latest forensic testing and genetic family tree conclusively recognized Kenneth Smith, 72, of Windsor, Ontario, as the one who killed two ladies within the Eighties and a 3rd girl within the Nineties.
They are saying the primary girl, Christine Prince, 25, was discovered lifeless on June 22, 1982, within the Rouge River in Toronto after she was sexually assaulted and struck on the top.
Police say Claire Samson, 23, was discovered lifeless with gunshot wounds in Oro-Medonte Township on Sept. 1, 1983.
They are saying the third sufferer, 41-year-old Gracelyn Greenidge, died of blunt power trauma in her Toronto condominium on July 29, 1997.
Police stated Smith lived and labored in Toronto on the time of the homicides and had a historical past of sexual assault, and investigators imagine there could possibly be extra victims.
Genetic family tree has more and more been used to trace down unidentified felony suspects and assist clear up scores of chilly instances lately, a few of them greater than a half-century previous or involving different serial killers. It unmasked the Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo, who pleaded responsible to 13 murders and 13 rape-related fees that spanned a lot of California between 1975 and 1986.
“This case had haunted our workplace,” Toronto Police Det. Sgt. Steve Smith stated in a social media video Thursday.
Police can create a DNA profile to add to public DNA databases and examine it to different profiles, serving to to hint people inside a household tree.
“It is superb. I imply it goes to indicate you now we have actually damaged the barrier,” Sgt. Smith stated. “The instances that have been unsolvable prior to now are actually solvable.”
Ontario Provincial Police Chief Supt. Karen Gonneau stated as DNA know-how superior police reviewed plenty of unsolved homicides. It wasn’t till 2017 that they linked a suspect to all three ladies.
Smith stated they have been in a position to establish shut kinfolk of the offender. And he stated with that data the middle of forensic science was then in a position to conduct the ultimate comparability that led to the conclusive identification of Smith.
He stated Smith lived and labored in Toronto in the course of the interval of all three murders. He was recognized to police and had a historical past of sexual assault.
“Primarily based on the proof we now have immediately we imagine it’s doable that there could also be further victims who’ve by no means been recognized,” Sgt. Smith stated.
He stated Smith was by no means investigated for these murders beforehand. He additionally stated he had been jailed not less than as soon as earlier than the primary two murders and twice earlier than Greenidge’s homicide.
Different serial killers have made headlines in Canada in latest months.
Earlier this 12 months, the remains of a two Indigenous ladies murdered by a convicted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki have been present in a landfill in central Canada.
In October 2024, a woman described by police as a serial killer was arrested in suburban Toronto and charged with three murders spanning three days.
In Could 2024, convicted Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton, who introduced feminine victims to his pig farm throughout against the law spree close to Vancouver within the late Nineties and early 2000s, died after being assaulted in jail.
