Quebec cold cases: Families of 8 dead women call for public inquiry

The relatives of eight womenwho suffered violent deaths in the 1970sand early 1980sare calling on Quebec Public Security MinisterMartin Coiteuxto call a publicinquiry into policing methods in the province.

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For decades, those families have honoured the memory of their lost sisters and daughters, waitingfor a call from police to confirman arrest and, in some cases, becomingdetectives themselves.

Now their hope has been renewed through the efforts of a Quebecfilmmaker, Stphan Parent, who is making a documentary about seven of those women, tentatively entitledSept Femmes.

"We found [much]evidence was destroyed by police," Parentsaid.

Parent, who began investigating the unsolved homicideof 16-year-oldSharron Prior,noticed a pattern in other cold cases from the same era: destroyed evidence, relatives whose calls went unanswered, police forces that failed to communicate with one another.

Parentcontacted former Liberaljustice minister MarcBellemareto help the families build acase for an inquiry.

The missing girls and women

The late1970swere not an easy time to be a teenage girl or young woman in Quebec. Month after month, another was reported missing and then founddead.

Among them:

PointeSaint-Charles: March 1975.SharronPrior, 16, was on her way tohave pizza with friends at arestaurant five minutes from her home.Her body was found three days later in the snow inLongueuil. No one hasever been arrested.

Chateauguay,two teenagegirls are found killed: 12-year-oldNorma O'Brien in July 1974 and14-year-old Debbie Fisher in June 1975.A young man, a minor, confesses to the killings, though his name andthe details are still cloaked in mystery.

Sherbrooke, March 1977: 20-year-old LouiseCamirandis found in the snow, 11 days after stoppingat aconvenience story to buy milk and cigarettes. Her killer is never found.

Montreal, June 1978: 17-year-oldLisonBlaisis found dead just metresfrom the entrance of the home where she lived with her parentsonChristophe-Colomb Street. She'd left a disco bar on St-Laurent Boulevard early that morning.Shehad been raped and struck on the head, and there were chokingmarks on her neck.

Lennoxville, November1978: 19-year-old Theresa Allore disappears from the campus of Champlain College, only to be found at the edge of the Coaticook River five months later. Police rule her death suspicious.

A serial killer?

"I think Quebec in that era was a very violent place," said JohnAllore, oneof the relatives who is asking for a public inquiry.

"People got away with a lot more. In today's world, withcellphonesand allthis technology, cameras everywhere, it's not as easy to get away withthese kind of behaviours."

His research shows there were 179 homicides in Quebec in 1977 and 177the year before. In 2013, there were 68 homicides in the province.

The SQ won't confirm the statistics, but it's clear that in the1970s, criminalswere getting away with rapeand even murder.

He said because police forces at the time worked in isolation, they failed to identify patterns.

If there was a serial killer on the loose in the greater Montreal area, as some relatives of the dead women believe, police didn't figure that out or didn't share their suspicions with victims' families.

Change in attitudes

Lt.MartineAsselin,the spokeswomanfor theSQ'scold case unit,acknowledges it was tougher then to solve cases.

"A lot of things have changed since those years: the evolution of the techniques and the evolution of the DNA and the way to treat the evidence has also changed," she said.

"The communications between the police forces is very present. We have a task force to manage serial killers or serial sexual assaults," Asselin said.

The cold case unit has recently added more officers, and Asselin said the provincial police force is looking seriously at these unsolved crimes. As for the decrease in thenumber of homicides over the years,Asselincredits improved police techniques, including those aimed at crimeprevention.

JohnAlloreagrees there has been a change in attitudes.

"Certainly, in the1970s, rape and sexual assault were not taken as seriously then as theyare today," Allore said. He said blaming the victim was the norm.

"A woman is found with a rope, a ligature around her neck, and police say itcould have been suicide. A young girl is found abandoned in a field, andthey say it could have been a hit and run."

My sister is found in her bra andunderwear in a stream, and they say it could have been a drug overdose."

Inquiry demand focuses on 8 cases

The letter to the public security minister focuses on eight cases: SharronPrior, Louise Camirand, Joanne Dorion, Hlne Monast, Denise Bazinet,Lison Blais, Theresa Allore and Roxanne Luce.

In it, the familiesask for the following changes:

• That all murders and disappearances anywhere in the province beinvestigated solely by theSretduQubec.

• That a protocol be established to make sure all evidence andinformation isheld in a centralized place.

• That police officers be paid to undergo specialized training.

• That families of victims be kept systematically informed about theevolution of any investigation.

• That families of victims, accompanied by their lawyers, have accessto the complete dossiers of the investigations, if the crime is still notsolved after 25 years.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Security says officialsare well awareof the difficult situation that relatives of missing or murdered people have togo through. The Ministry says it has received the letter asking for a publicinquiry, and that demand is currently beinganalyzed.