Share this Story: HUNTER: Toronto cold-case cops closing in on 1983 double killer?
HUNTER: Toronto cold-case cops closing in on 1983 double killer?
Two women among several unsolved December murders in the city
Brad Hunter
Susan Tice, left, and Erin Gilmour were both murdered by the same man in 1983, just months apart.
There are more than 500 unsolved homicides in Toronto dating back to 1959 when soul master Ray Charles' What'd I Say was topping the charts.
The Toronto Police Service's cold case page lists 49 unsolved murders for the month of December with the oldest being the Dec. 22, 1972 slaying of 55-year-old Frances Isobel McLennan, who was found in her apartment at 125 Parkway Forest Dr. with traumatic injures. She was dead at the scene.
HUNTER: Toronto cold-case cops closing in on 1983 double killer? Back to video
But in many of the investigations, cops are tantalizingly close to solving these dusty relics.
Det.-Sgt. Stephen Smith, of the cold case unit, said that one long-buried piece of information can bring these unknown killers closer to justice. Equally important is bringing some measure of peace to the families of the victims who have waited decades for answers.
He picked out a number of December cases that come to mind.
"All of these victims were vulnerable members of our community. We believe in each of these cases that someone knows the killer," Smith told the Toronto Sun. "We are asking people to call us directly or, if they feel more comfortable, to submit a tip through Crime Stoppers.
One of the red balls is the shocking Dec. 20, 1983 murder of career woman Erin Gilmour, 22, who was stabbed to death in her Yorkville apartment. Years later cops linked Gilmour's murder to that of single mom Susan Tice, 45.
On Aug. 17, 1983, Tice had been stabbed to death at her home on Grace St.
Detectives tied the two cases in 2011 using the killer's DNA and believe they may be closing in on solving the nearly four-decade-old mystery.
"We are currently conducting a genetic genealogy investigation into the two murders and are hoping to provide closure to both families," Smith said of the latest tool in the cold-case arsenal.
Nearly a year after Gilmour's murder in her posh apartment, Toronto cops were investigating a slaying at the opposite end of the socio-economic spectrum.
Susan Siegel was murdered days before Christmas in 1984.
The body of Susan Siegel — a 21-year-old sex worker originally from Edmonton — was discovered on Dec. 17, 1984. She had been dumped on a sidewalk near the former west-end stockyards. Siegel had been strangled to death with a ligature.
But detectives always believed because of her lack of clothes that the cold, hard pavement was not their crime scene and the young woman had been murdered elsewhere.
Siegel's sister summed up the agony of cold-case families in 2016, 32 years after the murder.
"People always ask me why I would want to keep talking about it, but I keep thinking, if somebody doesn't talk about it then it's really tragic," Janine Stearne said.
"It happened. And you can't just say 'put it away because it hurts.' I wish that it had been solved, but you come to terms with it after all of this time."
Laura Miriam Rios-Galegro was targeted for death. TORONTO POLICE SERVICE
The slaying of Laura Miriam Rios-Galegro is more recent but no less poignant.
On Dec. 7, 2009, the importer/exporter was getting out of her car in the parking lot of her apartment building at 2130 Weston Rd.
Suddenly, the single mom was shot multiple times in the head. Her two-year-old daughter was found unharmed inside Rios-Galegro's vehicle.
While the shooting was targeted, detectives couldn't find anything in the victim's background that would put her in the crosshairs of a killer.
"The key is to not give him reason," then Det.-Sgt. Pauline Gray told reporters at the time. "There can't be anything (that can reason) doing this in front of an innocent child. I can't imagine what she'll have to do or go through for the rest of her life."
Smith added: "A witness described the killer as a male, 5-foot-10 to 6-feet, and stated he walked across the street into a church parking lot and left in late model green or brown (vehicle)."
If you have any information on any of the cold cases, contact the homicide unit at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477).
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun