Man arrested and charged in 1983 murder of two women in Toronto, police say

A 61-year-old man from northern Ontario has been charged with first-degree murder in the murder of two women in Toronto nearly 40 years ago.

Joseph George Sutherland was arrested by state police in Moussone, Ontario on November 24 and taken to Toronto to face two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Susan Tice and Erin Gilmore. rice field.

Interim Toronto Police Chief James Reimer announced Sutherland’s arrest at a news conference Monday morning.

Tice, 45, and Gilmore, 22, were sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in their beds in August and December 1983. The two lived a few kilometers apart in the city center. Tice lived in the Bickford Park area and Gilmour in an apartment in Yorkville.

Police said the two women did not know each other.

Gilmour was an aspiring fashion designer and daughter of mining tycoon David Gilmour, while Tice was a family therapist and mother of four teenagers.

“We are relieved to announce this arrest, but Erin or Susan will never be back,” Reimer said.

Gilmore’s brothers Sean and Kaelin McCowan also attended the press conference.

Sean McCowan thanked the police for their work and said that if Gilmore hadn’t been killed, the family would “always wonder what was going on.”

“This is the day that I and I have been waiting for almost our whole lives,” McCowan said. “Finally giving a name and a face to someone who was a ghost to all of us,” he added.

“In some ways it’s a relief to have someone arrested, but it brings back memories of Erin and her brutal and senseless murder.”

WATCH | Erin Gilmore’s brother expresses relief and sadness:

In 2000, detectives were able to link the two murders using DNA technology, and investigators determined that the same man murdered both women.

In 2019, police began using a technique called “investigative genealogy” to identify family groups of suspects. This process cross-references DNA found at crime scenes with DNA samples voluntarily submitted to services such as 23andMe and Ancestry.ca and uploads them to open source databases.

Researchers worked backwards to create a family tree of the suspect’s relatives, Det.-Sgt. said. Lead investigator in an unsolved case, Steve Smith. The same process was used to identify a man who Toronto police claim he raped and murdered his nine-year-old girlfriend, Christine Jessop, in 1984.

As they approached Sutherland, Smith said police had issued him a warrant to test his DNA directly on samples recovered from the scene.

Smith called the investigation “the most complicated” case he has worked on for 25 years, and credited recent developments to genetic genealogy. He said Sutherland had never been interested in killing before.

“Without this technology, I would never have known his name,” he told reporters.

Smith said Toronto police have developed a rigorous process for using the technique, adding that he is “very confident” that its conclusions will hold up in court.

In 2021, Smith spoke at length on CBC’s show. Fifth Estate Regarding the investigation into the unsolved case regarding the deaths of Tice and Gilmore.

View | Fifth Estate: Gene Hunters

Smith said Sutherland was living in Toronto at the time of the killings and has lived in multiple other locations since. He said police will investigate Sutherland’s connection to other murders in the state over the next 39 years.

Smith added that Sutherland has a family of his own and an expanding family that resides primarily in northern Ontario. He said the publication ban prevented him from disclosing details about Sutherland, who is next scheduled to appear in court on December 9.

Of the 700 pending Toronto police cases, Smith said, there are 43 cases where DNA samples recovered at the scene are believed to belong to the perpetrators.

Under a three-year state grant, police can direct 15 DNA technology investigations each year in Toronto and 15 in Ontario, Smith said.