Renee Sweeney's murder suspect has 'good DNA profile' but no hits yet

Morning North7:23Gone but not Forgotten - Renee Sweeney

It's the first profile in our series "Gone but not Forgotten"... the seventeen year old murder of Renee Sweeney. She was stabbed to death while working at an Adult Only video store in Sudbury. We look at the status of the investigation.

Sudbury police know almost everything about the man who murdered 23-year-oldReneeSweeney except his name.

They have his gloves and his windbreaker. They have a partial fingerprint and shoe print. They have his DNA.

It is that DNA, that one investigatorbelieves may end up solving the murder.

Sergeant David Toffolihas a stack ofbanker's boxes of notes he took during the several years he worked on the case. They are a silent reminder in the corner of his small office. He saidthey're a fraction of the case file whichfilledsixty boxes.

The murder happenedJanuary 27,1998. Police notes showed thetemperature was -17 Cand there was light snow. Renee was working the Adult Only Video store at 1500 Paris Street.

Her high school friend, Catherine Valiaho, saidRenee didn't fit the stereotype of an adult video store clerk. She wasn't involved in the sex trade.

"It was just a job to her. She was very independent and kind and intelligent," said Valiaho. "It was a job, it wasn't a lifestyle or anything like that."

Sweeney was a music student at Laurentian University who was writing a thesis andalso played trombone with the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra.

Victim fought hard

At 11:27 on January 27, 1998, Renee's attacker entered the store, according to police. He stabbed her as she stood in front of the counter, then police believehe went to the washroom to rinse off some blood.

Renee had crawled around to the back of the counter where there was a phone. Her assailant struck her again, and fled, taking $200 from the till. Police counted thirty stab wounds.

Renee fought hard. Shehadskin from her attacker under her fingernails, said Toffoli.

"We have a good DNA profile of the suspect," said Toffoli. "And I believe there will be a tip that will lead us to the suspect and we can confirm that the suspect is that person through DNA."

So far, however, in 17 years, there have been no hits.

There is a huge amount of physical evidence:a windbreaker-type jacket made in Korea and sold only in California, adiaper pin in the pocket, and a pair of white work gloves. Police have a partial fingerprint and footprint.

Police hired an OPP profilerwho said the suspect was male, in his late teens or early twenties, lived in Sudbury, andworked in the service industry.

As much as Toffoli put hisfaith in the DNA databank, he saidthe lack of a matchindicatedthe man who committed this crime just hasn't committed any other major crimes in Canada that would compel him to give DNA to the registry.

Is the DNA system working as it should?

That doesn't make sense toMike Arntfield. He is a criminologist at the University of Western Ontario.

He looked at the Sweeney case for consideration for a televisionsegment that he produced called "To Catch a Killer" that aired on Oprah Winfrey'snetwork.

He decided against using the Sweeney case andsaidhe was struck by the lack of DNA hits. It wasextremely unusual that someone who committed such a violent crimedid not commit any other violent crimes and didn't end up in the DNA registry, he said.

Violent people tend to continue to be violent until they're caught, Arntfield added.

"I see DNA in these cases," he said. "And I have to wonder whether the system is working as it should."

Meanwhile, back at the police station, Toffoli said on average, three tips a month come in on the Sweeney case. He saidit's far from cold. And he has faith in the system to identify Renee Sweeney's murderer so he can answer to his crime.

Police are asking anyone who has a tip to give them a call: 705-675-9171, ext. 2300.