Loading summary
Transcript26 lines
- [00:01]
Shopify Advertiser
When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want. Like all the way. Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha chings from every channel right in one spot and turn real time reporting into big time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify. Start your free trial today.
- [00:29]
Wayfair Advertiser
Hey there, it's Wayfair here where delivery and setup are as easy as a few taps on your phone. You're relaxing in an old hammock scrolling Wayfair's app when you spot it a brand new patio set. Next thing you know, Wayfair delivers it right to your patio and sets it up. Oh, you need a new grill too. Alright, Wayfair's got you covered. With Wayfair's room of choice delivery and fast expert setup on qualifying orders, life gets a little easier. Visit Wayfair.com or the Wayfair app Wayfair
- [00:56]
Narrator (Jessica Bettencourt)
Every Style, Every Home.
- [00:58]
Podcast Host (Jessica Bettencourt)
You're listening to dnaid brought to you by Abjec Entertainment. Be sure to check out some of the other great true crime podcasts from this network, including the Murder in My Missing Persons, Scene of the Crime, Zodiac Speaking Beyond Bizarre True Crime, Campus Killings, Below the Surface and Killer Communications. All of these podcasts are available for you to binge on right now. Wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe where you're listening to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. Sa.
- [02:24]
Narrator (Jessica Bettencourt)
It was 1982. On Monday, June 21, Emil and Josie Krusik were worried. Their live in nanny, Christine was not there at 7:30 on Monday morning to take care of their three year old daughter Nicole. Christine had Sunday afternoon off and had gone out with friends. When Emile and Josie went to bed on Sunday night, Christine had not returned. They thought nothing of it. But the next morning when she was nowhere to be seen in, it appeared she had never returned to the Toronto home. It was totally out of character for Christine not to be where she was supposed to be. The Toronto Star interviewed Josie. Quote, we thought it was serious when she wasn't there. Our first instincts were that maybe something happened to her. Emile and Josie contacted Christine's fiance David Smith, a chef, but he hadn't seen her since they'd parted ways the previous evening. They called her best friend, another nanny from the UK named Gloria Betts. She hadn't seen Christine either. So Emil, Josie and her fiance David went around the neighborhood checking with neighbors to see if they'd seen Christine and They walked around Humewood park, where she often took Nicole. Nothing. The Kruziks called police when Christine failed to turn up very quickly. There was bad news later that day. Christine's wallet, containing $2 and her ID were found on Highway 401 near Meadowvale Road in Scarborough, 48km, about 30 miles from the house where she cared for the Kruzik family's child.
- [03:49]
Podcast Host (Jessica Bettencourt)
The items lay on the side of
- [03:50]
Narrator (Jessica Bettencourt)
the road as though tossed from a vehicle. A transportation ministry workman who found them turned them in, and their finding underscored to police the seriousness of the situation. Christine had not run off on a whim or flight of fancy. Police recognized that the responsible young woman was almost certainly not the person who had discarded her important personal possessions on a city roadway. Police searchers descended on the Scarborough area and searched the fields and ravines. About 30 uniformed officers also searched and canvassed the southeast portion of York Borough where Christine lived with the Krusik family. They passed out her picture to passersby on the street, asking if anyone recognized her or had seen anything. And they spoke with her fellow nanny and friend, Gloria Betts. The two had gone out on Sunday night. What Gloria had to say informed the police about what had likely happened to Christine. On Sunday evening, June 20, Christine, Gloria and Christine's fiance, David, went to a movie and then got donuts at a coffee shop near Bloor street West and St. George Street. Afterwards, they all boarded the westbound St. Clair Avenue streetcar, known as the TTC together. David got off the streetcar near his apartment and walked home. Gloria and Christine had longer journeys. Gloria got off at Bathurst street and Christine stayed aboard. She would have ridden the streetcar for two more stops after Bathurst and disembarked at the Winchwood avenue stop around 1:40 in the morning. She would have walked a block along St. Clair Avenue to Pinewood, past Humewood park and other residences to the Kruzik home. She never made it. She was on the streetcar headed home and then she vanished. As I said, there was zero question in anybody's mind that Christine would have just disappeared on her own. The family she worked for, the Kruzik, said she was very reliable and was the sort of girl who reported her comings and goings to us. End quote. According to Emil, she was a responsible young woman, was close with her parents back home, was engaged to be married, and seemed very happy and social. So what had happened to her? Gloria later said it never occurred to either of the young women that the upscale area of Toronto where they lived and Worked was unsafe at all. London, yes. Toronto, no. Christine remained missing throughout all of Monday and Monday night. Then, at 7:15am on Tuesday, June 22, a body was found. Multiple residents of Scarborough driving to work or walking their dogs, saw the nude body of a female floating face down on rocks in shallow water in the West Rouge River. This was near the intersection of Sewell's Road and Finch Avenue near the Metro Toronto Zoo. The area was a short drive from where Christine's wallet and ID had been found on Highway 401. Police received several calls from citizens reporting a body lying in plain view. When they responded, they were certain, based on photos, that the body was Christine. And it was. An autopsy of Christine by Dr. John Hilsden Smith, chief pathologist of Ontario, documented the following. She had a deep laceration on her face and two visible gashes on her head. The laceration could have been from the body hitting rocks in the river. She had been in the water for at least 20 hours. It was surmised. Ligature marks on Christine's wrists indicated that she'd been bound and she'd been bludgeoned on the back of the head and thrown into the river alive. Her cause of death was drowning. She expired after being stunned and thrown into the water and ingesting it into her lungs. Vaginal swabs collected at Christine's autopsy tested positive for sperm. She had not had sex with her fiance. That could explain the presence of the sperm. So Dr. Hilsden Smith concluded that Christine had been raped. So who was Christine? Christine Prince, age 23, born to parents William and Kathleen, was a native of Wales. The quiet young woman had worked in a grocery store in her hometown of Porthcawl, but wanted to travel and make some money for university, so she decided to become a nanny overseas. She came to Canada in October of 1981, planning on staying for a year. Her father, Bill, said in an interview with a British news outlet that his daughter was, quote, a good girl who just wanted to help people. She was really interested in working with handicapped children, end quote. Her Welsh friend Susan Fletcher said the same, describing Christine as, quote, a gentle girl who would never hurt a fly, end quote. Christine settled into life in Toronto quickly, spending time with other Welsh nannies in the city when she wasn't working. Christine's parents had received a letter from her on the very day she went missing. It contained some photos of her and talked about how much she loved her job and the city of Toronto. Bill and Kathleen got a call from the Kruzicks after their Daughter had been missing for 13 hours, news that was incomprehensible. They went back and forth to their local police station for the next day or so hoping for good news. When the news came, it wasn't good. Christine was their only daughter. Bill and Kathleen later spoke to the Toronto Star saying, you never really get over it. We cry every day. Bill made sure to tell the investigators that Christine was a risk averse, steady person and she never would have gotten into a car with someone she didn't know well. As I mentioned, Christine was engaged to Englishman David Smith, who also lived in Toronto. The wedding was planned for back in Porthcaw, Wales in October. Instead, Christine's parents, both in their mid-60s, had to welcome their daughter home in a box and plan a funeral. Her friends other nannies in Toronto set up a fund to collect money to help her parents pay the $2,000 cost, but an anonymous donor contributed the entire amount. The family that Christine nannied for, the Kruziks flew to Wales for the funeral, meeting Christine's parents, to whom they had written several months before her death saying how wonderful she was. Christine's best friend Gloria and her fiance David both left Toronto immediately after she was killed, unable to stand living in the place that reminded them so much of their murdered loved one. Okay, back to the crime scene investigation. Police officers searched the body location thoroughly, finding tire tracks from a four wheel drive vehicle in the mud leading from Sewell's road to the river's edge. The body was found 200 yards downstream from there. A police spokesman told the media, the person we are looking for obviously knew the area very well and knew where he was driving, end quote. There was no certainty that the tire tracks the police found were caused that very night or that they had anything to do with anything. But police were definitely interested in finding out who had been driving there. Based on the location of the body and the information about where Christine was last seen alive, the investigators believed Christine had been beset by an unknown assailant after stepping off the cable car and starting her two plus block walk to the Kruzik house. She often took taxis if she was out late at night. But on this fateful evening, she decided to go with public transport with her friends. Someone abducted her by forcing her into a vehicle and police said they believed she had been driven across the city to a lover's lane area, a clearing in the densely wooded Rouge River Valley where they had found the tire tracks. The lovers lane area was patronized by locals. It was not the kind of place that someone would stumble on. Christine, it was felt, was likely raped and killed in an interaction at this Lovers Lane area, although she could have been taken to a secondary location first, and there was some question about whether her assailant intended to kill her with the blows to the head or just to stun her in order to get her into the car. After she was raped and bludgeoned, Christine had been dumped over an embankment into the river, snaking along next to the Lovers Lane area in the woods, and the body had washed down a ways before coming to rest on the rocks. The river had very low water levels at the time. Whoever left Christine's nude body there took no pains to hide it and did not care that she would quickly be spotted in the busy location. This seemed to indicate that the killer had no connection to that immediate area, although he must have had familiarity with it. There were plenty of other secluded locations closer to the abduction site, so it seemed the that this Lover's Lane area was a destination specifically sought out by the assailant. Police marveled at the brazenness of the killer in leaving the body out in the open for everyone to see come daylight. Quote they were taking no care to cover their tracks. Toronto Police Services Detective Sergeant Stephen Smith later said it was almost as if the killer wanted people to know what he had done. Based on the location of the wallet they found. The police surmised that after the murder, the perpetrator or perpetrators drove back westbound toward the city on the four zero one as the wallet was found on the shoulder of the westbound lane headed toward the city. When her body was retrieved from the river, Christine was naked, but a bra, sweater and pair of light blue pants were found right near the body. Christine's shoes, underwear and large handbag were not located. Nor was a multicolored umbrella her friend said she'd been carrying that night. This was odd, since Christine's wallet had been found in the roadway. Why would her abductor abandon the wallet but keep the other things? Police were baffled and admitted to the media that they had not the slightest clue. The Toronto Police Service, known as the tps, set up a hotline to handle tips from the public on Christine's case. Ten members of the TPS were assigned to work out of a temporary command post established in New York to be as close as possible to the location where they believed Christine was abducted from. Another command post was set up at the body recovery site. Thirty officers staffed the case full time, canvassing Christine's neighborhood and residents of the area where she was Found, they learned that some neighbors near the river had heard screams on the night Christine was abducted and police believed killed. Toronto police staff Inspector Roy Soplitz said, quote, whoever killed her must have had an all terrain type vehicle and must know the area very well. Scuba divers were brought in from Toronto Harbor Police to search the Rouge river for any further evidence. Search dogs were also brought in to follow Christine's scent to see whether they could find her missing personal items. They did locate her missing umbrella. A woman reported finding the multicolored collapsible umbrella in the middle of Pinewood Avenue near the intersection with St. Clair Avenue west at Humewood Park. Christine would have walked right past the park on her walk home from the public transit stop. The woman picked up the umbrella from the middle of the street and left it hanging on the doorknob of a clothing store at 686St. Clair, hoping its owner would come back and find it. When police publicized that the umbrella went missing, people put two and two together and turned the umbrella into the tps. The location of the abandoned umbrella in the middle of the street solidified the police theory about what happened to Christine. She was walking home from the streetcar stop very near to her destination, when she was grabbed in the middle of the street, causing her to drop the umbrella. She was driven across town, raped and killed at the Lovers Lane area. And the killer doubled back through the city, discarding her items from his car window on Highway 401. The three distinct crime scenes, the abduction site, the body dump site and the wallet site, complicated the investigation significantly further. This appeared to be a stranger on stranger, crime of opportunity, one of the hardest to solve, especially in the 1980s before DNA. Honestly, given that it was 1982 and Christine was found in the water, it was extremely fortuitous that a sexual assault kit had even found sperm. Because Christine had been raped. Police focused on all known sex offenders and convicted rapists who were out and about in society at the time. June 1982. This was, of course, a massive suspect pool. In the first few days of the investigation, the TPS questioned dozens of these men and planned to interview hundreds more. I was told that over the years, thousands of suspects were considered. Meanwhile, women in Toronto were terrified. Another young woman, Jennifer Isford, had been killed right before Christine. Also, after disembarking public transit alone at about 1:30 in the morning, a man had been seen by the streetcar driver disembarking on Jenny's heels. And she was found in a residential front yard in just her bra, raped and Strangled, her cheer uniform and personal items strewn about. Christine was a similarly random victim, one who was killed despite being cautious and responsible. And the area from which Christine was abducted was an affluent, safe neighborhood. Yet she had not been safe. About 50 young women, including several of Christine's nanny friends, went to a meeting with Toronto police to talk about safety on Toronto streets and to get tips about how to remain secure while navigating the city alone at night. Christine's friends also planned a short memorial service and honorary tree planting in Humewood park, where she often took little Nicole. It was heavily attended. After Christine's death, along with the murders of Jennifer Isford and Claudia Giebert, a Task force on Public Violence on Women and Children was put in place. The police began using a special computer to keep track of known sex offenders and sexual assaults so they could coordinate investigative leads. One sergeant was appointed to spearhead the whole thing, but female officers were assigned to the task force in order to interview survivors of sexual assault who might not feel comfortable speaking with male officers. This was somewhat revolutionary at the time. In early September, police made a public plea for assistance in locating a driver of a pickup truck that a witness had seen near the location of Christine's body dump site. A witness reported seeing a Datsun four wheel drive pickup in the area of the Sewalls Road Bridge, Finch Avenue east in Scarborough Row. But based on the tire tracks, police actually concluded that the vehicle was some kind of Toyota four wheel drive. Unfortunately, when they tried to look at all such vehicles registered in the area, there were just too many and that lead fizzled. In November 1982, it was reported by the Toronto Star that just about every lead in Christine's sex slaying case had been exhausted and the Metro Police Commissioner was expected to consider offering a reward for information. The case stalled for nearly three years. In June 1985, the Toronto Star reported that police now suspected that two unknown men, not one assailant, were responsible for Christine's rape and murder three years earlier. This was a theory that was floated by the FBI's BSU in a report dated June 21, 1982. They based the theory on the fact that Christine was was taken so suddenly and swiftly from the city streets without a noise or any sign of a scuffle. The report suggested Christine was bound by the wrists and taken to a place familiar with the attackers. According to the Star, the report posited that the attacker was an outgoing, aggressive individual with a more meek accomplice. The Star article pointed out that investigators were at a dead end in Christine's investigation and were once again appealing to the public for clues. One suspect that was publicly mentioned in Christine's case was a man named Danny Wood. In 1982, Wood was arrested for killing two women, one in Calgary and one in Toronto. The first in 1979 and the second around 1982. Wood was a drifter who had been raised by a heroin addicted mother. He had left home at age 10 and lived on the streets. On March 1st, 1979, he raped, mutilated and strangled 50 year old Merla Marie Laycock. He stuffed her body under a van and fled town, eventually ending up in Toronto in 1982. A 1991 article in the Toronto Star reported that Metro and Ontario Provincial Police investigators suspected that Wood may have killed as many as 12 women in the late 1970s. Into the early 1980s, Wood had spoken of 15 murders and new details. The investigators felt only the killer would know and there was a reason that TPS considered him a suspect in Christine's murder. Wood had been arrested for and convicted of one of several notorious rape murders that took place In Toronto in 1982, the slaying of Judy Ann Delisle, a mother of four who was raped, sexually mutilated and then strangled with her own pantyhose. Wood was ruled out in the slaying of cheerleader Jenny Isford. But in Christine's case, according to the Toronto sun, police sources told the media, quote, wood has always been a suspect. He would not be scientifically ruled out for years to come. Then in the mid-1990s, police considered whether Christine could have been a victim of a serial killer after her case was circumstantially linked to five others. In Toronto in 1994, Inspector Ron McKay was head of the RCMP's violent crime analysis section. He had implemented a new police information exchange program called the Violent Criminal Linkage Analysis System. This was similar to VICAP in the US and allowed police across Canada to compare notes on open cases. And the system found that six cases bore striking similarities. According to a 1994 investigation by the Toronto Star, citing admissions from unnamed police sources. The victims were Christine Prince, Delia Adriano, Valerie Stevens, Linda Shaw and Cindy Halliday, as well as Jenny Isbert. Some of these cases had similarities such as the victims bodies being left outdoors in plain sight, the victims being killed on weekends and many of the victims being slain after using public transit. According to the Star, all six women were out at night alone. But as we will see, it turned out that Christine's case was related to none of these others. In 1995, there was big news. Toronto police arrested William Brett Henson for the May 1982 murder of Jenny Isford. Jenny's case, so close in time to Christine's, was just as legendary in Toronto as the slaying of the Welsh nanny. And Henson's arrest 13 years after the fact was a big deal. Henson had done time in the 80s and early 1990s for several sexual assaults he committed after he killed Jennie. He was linked to Jenny's case via DNA. In 1997, he was convicted of Jennie's murder and sentenced to life. However, Toronto police said Henson was not a suspect in Christine's murder. This turn of events was surprising to police because Jenny and Christine's cases had long been linked, having taken place so close together in time and bearing so many similarities. Both young women had been raped and murdered after disembarking at night alone from public transport on the west side of Toronto. Both cases were believed to be stranger on stranger attacks. Toronto Police Homicide Inspector Wayne Oldham told the Toronto Star in 1982, quote, the most difficult murder to solve is the blitz sex attack. In a stranger to stranger situation like that, there is no evidence that identifies the defender, end quote. But there was DNA in Christine's case from her sexual assault kit and it did not match to Henson. The cases, although startlingly similar, were unrelated. Years passed. In 2015, the TPS initiated Project Never Give Up. This involved a new internal review of all Toronto PD cold cases to see if physical evidence remained that could yield DNA for the DNA Data bank established in 2000 or could utilize updated fingerprint technology to revitalize dated LIFs. Through this review, Christine's unsolved case came onto the radar of modern investigators who recognized that the most likely means of solving the case was through the one enduring piece of evidence. They had DNA behind the scenes. They got to work. In 2021, the Toronto Police Service made a video and released it to the public to call attention to Christine's case. Detective Sergeant Stephen Smith of the TPS narrated the video, speculating about what might have happened to Christine. Quote, we believe that the perpetrator or perpetrators were waiting in a vehicle. They may have called her over, her being a good person, she went over to give them directions or whatever. If she had gone willingly with them, she would have taken her umbrella. So we believe she was taken right from the street, end quote. In the video, Smith acknowledged that it was possible there were two suspects in Christine's abduction. He said, quote, it would be very difficult to overpower someone and drive at the same time, meaning that they believe two people may have overpowered Christine and thrown her into a car and driven off with her. Unfortunately, Toronto police had never been able to locate any witness to the abduction and had no description of the suspect or vehicle. They would have to turn to IGG to solve Christine's case. But before we get to that, let's discuss two other cases. In 1983, 23 year old Claire Simpson, who went by the initials KC or the name Casey, lived and worked in Toronto where her parents had a retail store downtown. Claire lived at home with her parents, worked at their store and spent time with other young people in the city going out and doing what 23 year olds do. Claire was last seen early on September 1, 1983, near Jarvis and Girard streets. She was out with friends who saw her in front of the Essex Hotel getting into a beige vehicle driven by an older white male with thinning hair. Her friends did not know who he was or what the purpose of Claire's business with him was. Claire never returned home that night and her family reported her missing to the tps. It did not take long before there was news. Although it was not in TPS jurisdiction. On September 2, Claire's body was found by a beekeeper in a wooded area off the 2021 side road in Oro Medante Township, not far from Highway 93. This was about 120 km north of Toronto in the jurisdiction of the Ontario Provincial Police or opposition. Although the dead woman had no identification on her and was only partially dressed, it was immediately apparent that she was the missing young woman from Toronto, as she was of Middle Eastern descent and her description, including darker skin, exactly matched that of the missing Claire Sampson. Claire had been shot once in the head by a small caliber weapon. She had also been strangled with her pantyhose, which were still wrapped around her throat. Because she was found in their jurisdiction, the OPP took over the investigation into Claire's murder. The OPP had a strict no media policy and declined to release any information to the public about the case, which is why so little is known about Claire's demise. Of course, the OPP looked into her personal life, her family, her work colleagues and so on. Many men were investigated and ruled out. But it seems clear that Claire being dumped north of Barrie had little to do with her actual abduction, which took place in Toronto, 100 miles away. She had no connection to the area where she was found and police suspected that her killer was also Toronto based. Claire's case went cold and I was told that the file on the case was slim and there was not much to it. Police were simply unable to identify the older man seen driving Claire away from the Essex Hotel, and her case remained unsolved. Let's fast forward a decade and a half to July 29, 1997. That day was a Tuesday. A co worker of Graceland Greenidge's was concerned Gracelyn had not shown up for her afternoon shift as a nursing assistant. That was not like Graceland, who took her job seriously. The co worker, receiving no answer on the phone at Graceland's apartment, decided to go over there. Graceland lived in a large, busy and teeming apartment complex at 50 Driftwood Avenue in the St. Jane Finch Avenue west area, where police often were summoned to handle domestics and other calls. Around 6:30pm the co worker knocked on the door of apartment 506, but no one responded. Then, peering through the mail slot, the co worker saw Graceland lying on the floor just inside the door with blood all over the place. Gracelyn Braithwaite Greenich was a 41 year old native of Barbados who had emigrated to Canada in the late 1970s in search of a better life than that offered in her homeland. She had resided in Canada for 20 years and was divorced. According to the Toronto Star, Graceland worked as a nursing assistant at Castleview Winchwood Towers, a home for the aged on Christie Street. She had last worked the 3:30pm shift on Monday, July 28, leaving the facility around 11:30pm Monday night. Police believe she then went home as she was known to have spoken on the phone with a friend in the apartment complex. The circumstances of this conversation were as follows. Gracelyn arrived home from work, parked her car at the complex and went inside her apartment. Ben, the friend who lived in the building, called her and said, you, car lights are on. So Graceland went back out to the parking lot and turned off the car lights. After that, no one knows exactly what happened to her. When the police arrived at the scene in Graceland's apartment, they were shocked at what they found. There had clearly been a very violent struggle that had moved from room to room with evidence of a violent physical altercation in the living room, dining room, kitchen and into the bedroom. Gracelyn was a sturdy and strong woman and had put up a hell of a fight against whoever attacked her. I was told that this was a knockdown, drag out, fight. Gracelyn was both bludgeoned and stabbed viciously in the head. At the scene. Large chunks of skin from her face and head were found the result of the frenzied attack. The attacker was believed to have used a knife from the apartment that perhaps he grabbed in panic as Graceland refused to submit. But the stabbing was only partially responsible for Graceland's death. She suffered massive blunt force trauma and a contributing cause of death was asphyxiation resulting from a plastic bag that was placed over her head and secured. Investigators analyzing the scene concluded that Graceland's attacker became more and more desperate to subdue her and was finally aided by the plastic bag located somewhere in the apartment that he was able to get over her head and use to impede the flow of oxygen. Graceland had not been raped, which police now believe was because she put up such a fight that her attacker had his hands full, finally killed her and ran off to escape detection rather than sticking around and sexually violating her corpse. Nothing seemed to have been stolen from the apartment, and Graceland did not have a lot of money or valuables, so her murder was chalked up to an attempted rape gone wrong. Speaking of ample physical evidence, TPS Homicide Cold Case Detective Sergeant Stacey Galland told Global News, quote, there had been a violent struggle in the apartment and there was quite an amount of blood throughout the apartment in different locations, end quote. He added that the apartment was in disarray with the chair knocked over and things thrown about in the melee. Police technicians collected samples of a lot of the blood and the items that seemed to have been impacted by the struggle and retained the them all in evidence. Given the evidence of a violent altercation in the apartment, police canvassing the neighbors who lived near Graceland's apartment were surprised to learn that none of them had heard anything unusual, or at least no one reported hearing anything. As I said, it was a very populous, noisy and busy building with routine police presence and possible criminal activity. If someone had indeed heard something, they kept it to themselves rather than getting involved. As a result, police had no idea when Gracelyn had been killed. And another perplexing piece of the puzzle, how had her attacker gained entry to the apartment? When police arrived, they found the front door to the apartment locked. The type of lock that secured the door required a key. However, Graceland's keys were found inside her apartment. Somehow, her assailant had locked the door on his way out, but it was unknown how or from whence he had obtained a key. Because of the key and the fact that there was no forced entry to the apartment, police very much believed that Graceland knew her attacker. This does not look like a random act, detective John Lyon told CTV News at the time. We have never been sure how he got into Graceland's apartment. Modern TPS Detective Sergeant Steve Smith said there's no way she would have let him in. She was reluctant to let people she knew inside, let alone some random guy. So the TPS investigated Graceland's inner circle. Her former husband proved to be out of the country when she was killed. He was off the hook. But Graceland had a number of men in her life and they all had to be considered. Police were interested in one of her friends in particular, a black male whom she had been seen with in her neighborhood in the weeks leading up to the murder. Graceland's friends and family did not know this man who was described as in his mid-30s, about 5 foot 9 or 5 foot 10, with a muscular 165 pound build. The man had a mustache, typically wore a baseball hat and had a mole on the right side of his face. He was known to frequent North End of Toronto bingo halls. The National Post reported in April 1999 that Toronto police were offering $100,000 reward for information in Graceland's case. A sketch of the black man with the mole and baseball hat called a suspect by the police was released to the public. As a result, the man was identified by police and investigated extensively. His name has not been released, but he turned out to be a new boyfriend of Graceland's and he was interviewed and his alibi, which I do not know, checked out. Police worked Graceland's case extensively but could not figure out who had access to her apartment and was able to lock the door on his way out. Despite ample physical evidence in the apartment, her case turned cold. The Canadian National DNA Databank, similar to codis in the US went online in the year 2000. There was a national push to get STR DNA profiles from crime scenes into the data bank. According to reporting by the Toronto Star, in 2001, the OPP launched Project Millennium, through which they reviewed 17 unsolved homicides to see if forensic technologies could provide leads. Claire Sampson's was one of the 17 cases. Semen had been found on the pantyhose around her neck and a male STR DNA profile obtained from the semen was entered into the data bank. Subsequently, additional testing was conducted by TPS on Kristine Prince's case. I was told by the TPS that samples collected from Kristine's autopsy on July 15, 1982 were retained by police for decades. In the 2000 and tens they were sent to the center of Forensic Science for analysis and testing. A biology report dated January 14, 2016 stated that a vaginal swab was found to have sufficient DNA to amplify and an unknown male DNA profile at 12 str loci was obtained. This male DNA profile was entered into the national DNA databank and boom. The sample from Christine's case hit to the sample in Claire Sampson's case, which occurred a year later. Police now knew that the two cases investigated by two different agencies Were connected to the same killer. And that wasn't all. Graceland greenish's case was soon connected as well. The 1997 TPS technicians had collected a sample of blood Sprayed onto a table leg in Graceland's apartment. It was not evident to the naked eye to whom this blood belonged. Whoever's blood it was, they had been injured badly to the point that their blood splashed onto the table leg and was observed and collected by the csis. Then it stayed in evidence storage until the tps's project never give up, which I mentioned earlier and involved a push to test DNA in cold cases. When that sprayed blood on the table leg in Graceland's apartment was tested, it turned out to be a mixture that included blood that was not Graceland's. A contributor was male. Graceland had injured her attacker, and he left a big juicy sample of his DNA for investigators to find. Once they had an str DNA sample in Graceland's case, the tps rounded up men they had questioned during the original investigation and tested them. This included the boyfriend who had been a SUSPECT Back in 1997, the baseball hat guy. All these men were eliminated when the mail sample from Graceland's case was entered into the national DNA databank in 2017. Investigators were astounded when it hit to the same unknown male perpetrator who was connected by DNA to the murders of Claire Sampson and Christine Prince. Detective sergeant Stephen Smith of the tps's homicide cold case and missing persons unit Told me that when the center of forensic sciences reported this result Linking a third cold case to the same offender, quote, it was so shocking that cfs actually shut down their lab to be sure there wasn't any cross contamination. But retesting confirmed the result. Blood from an unknown male at Graceland scene Matched a sex assault kit collected at Christine's autopsy and semen collected from pantyhose used to strangle Claire. Whoever killed Christine Prince in 1982 had also killed Claire Sampson in 1983 and Gracelyn Greenidge in 1997. This result was so surprising because the three cases Christine's, Claire's and Graceland's were so different. Christine appeared to have been snatched off the street, Claire had gotten into a vehicle with someone willingly, and Gracelyn had been attacked in her apartment. It wasn't even that the MOs were different. It was that there was no MO, no pattern whatsoever. The three victims had all been left in completely different locations and circumstances, and the cases were 15 years apart at the maximum time span. It made no sense whatsoever. And the new connection did not shed light on the cases that could help in solving them. Even with the TPS working with the OPP to crosscheck leads and tips focusing on the most recent case, in January 2018, Toronto Police Services cold case investigators offered a $50,000 reward for information about Graceland Greenidge's killer. TPS Homicide released a video about the case along with the reward announcement. In the video, Homicide Cold Case Detective Sergeant Stacey Gallant said Graceland's colleagues described her as caring and compassionate, always smiling, always very joyous and always very helpful. He said she led an exemplary life and was respected by all who knew her. He continued, we have the killer's DNA. Now we just need a name to go with the DNA, nothing more. Explaining that the killer's profile was not in the National DNA Data Bank, Gallant said, quote, anyone who knew Graceland who did not speak to the police during the original investigation is asked to contact cold case investigators immediately. You may have the key to this case and not realize it. He said that callers could remain anonymous, but that tips were crucial because TPS believed that there were people out there who knew who killed Graceland but had never come forward. It has been over 20 years since this murder occurred. It is time to step up and help solve this case. Gowland concluded the TPS was anxious to generate leads that did not rely on DNA because their samples were running low. We were fortunate in that we had DNA in all three cases, but there was such a tiny amount that was usable, detective Sergeant Steve Smith said. But with the advent of IGG and the embrace of that new technique among Canadian law enforcement agencies, they considered their options for an IGG analysis at the time. In 2021, they learned some disappointing news. The DNA sample in Christine Prince's case was degraded to the point that it was not usable, and the sample in Claire Sampson's case had been entirely consumed by testing over the years. All they had left was the mixture from the blood sample collected from the table leg. In Graceland's case, this sample was 15 years newer and had been collected With DNA preservation in mind, unlike the two 1980s cases, and the decision to use Graceland's sample would turn out to be very fortuitous. In 2022, the TPS arranged for SNP testing to be conducted on the sample by Othram Labs in the Woodlands, Tex. The sample was a complex mixture, about 5050 from two different contributors. It contained approximately equal numbers of markers from Graceland, a black female of Arbabian origin, and from an unknown white European male. The IGG should have been very, very complex, given that the SNP contained markers from both victim and killer. If they had shared heritage, it would have been very difficult for the genealogists to determine which markers came from which person. But that's not what happened. I emailed with Katie Crossman, the TPS genealogist on this case. She told me the sample we worked with was from Graceland's case. The sample was submitted to Othram and it was a mixed sample. Mixed samples are a challenge. This is the only one we've had that was so mixed. We've had others of poor quality due to age or contamination or with a low percentage of the victim's DNA. But 5050 was a first. The FTDNA match list was a jumble of DNA relatives of both of them, meaning the two contributors to the sample. But it was relatively easy for us to sort them because of the ethnicities. The mixture was DNA from a black female Graceland and a white male. Because of the different races of the contributors, the genealogists knew which DNA relatives were Gracelands. Those could be ignored altogether. The white European relatives with no connection to Graceland were their lead, and they could tell right away where the lead led them. A very close relative of the suspect was in the database and led the genealogist directly to his family. There were three brothers in his family, last named Smith, but one of them had a criminal record that significantly stuck out. Katie Crossman told me, we really lucked out with it because Graceland was Caribbean and almost completely of African descent. So we knew that those matches were likely irrelevant. There was only one useful European match and it was close. Basically, that one match clinched the case. Love that. The name the TPS genealogist provided to the cold case investigative team was Kenneth Leslie Smith. He had died of cancer and TPS could not locate a burial site for him. But they got lucky in locating a sample of his STR DNA profile to confirm the identification. Detective Sergeant Steve Smith told me that because of the renowned Christine Jessup case, the TPS solved in 2020, the province of Ontario changed the Coroner's act, so the pathologist performing any autopsy in Ontario is now required to retain a sample for future testing. This was done in Kenneth Smith's case because his death from cancer fortuitously called for an autopsy. The TPS had to apply for a warrant to obtain and test the retained sample, but they were successful in doing so. When the test results were completed, they showed that it was greater than 1 trillion times more likely that the DNA sample in the Greenidge case came from Kenneth Smith than from any other person. Finally, they had the name of the offender they had sought since 1982, 1983 and 1997. The TPS and the OPP held a press conference on December 11, 2025, about the solve. Toronto Police Deputy Chief Robert Johnson, OPP Chief Karen Gano, and Toronto Police Service Homicide and Missing Persons Unit Cold Case Section Detective Sergeant Steve Smith announced the identity of the offender responsible for three historic homicide cases. Deputy Chief Johnson went first, he told the assembled media. On December 3, 2025, the center for Forensic Sciences identified Kenneth Smith as the offender in the murders of three women. He described the three cases, but he spent the most time on Christine's case. For Christine's family and for the families of Claire and Graceland, the wait for answers has been extraordinarily long, he said. It is only through sustained collaboration and advances in forensic science that we have arrived at this moment. These women were never forgotten, and it is because of the commitment of so many that we are able to give their loved ones at least one crucial answer today, Deputy Chief Johnson said of Kenneth Smith, whom he described as meeting the criteria of a serial killer. Quote, if he were alive today, the TPS would arrest Kenneth Smith for the homicides of Christine Prince and Gracelyn Greenidge, and the OPP would arrest him for the homicide of Claire Simpson. His death means he will never be held to account in a court of law, and we recognize the impact that has on families who have waited so long for justice. OPP Chief Superintendent Karen Gano said, quote, while we are here to discuss three historic cases, I want to remind everyone that behind each of these cases are families and loved ones who have waited for decades for answers. Many of them likely believed those answers would never come. Yet here we are today. She said investigators worked these cases for decades, hoping a tip or advances in forensics would provide answers. She talked about Claire's case, the one in the OPP jurisdiction. And she discussed Project Millennium, which brought about the breakthrough in 2016 when the DNA from Claire's case matched to that in Christine's, she said to the investigators surprise. They had not been able to establish any connection whatsoever between Claire and Christine. They had no commonalities, no overlap, no parallels. Even their manner of death was different. The only thing that linked them was their mutual slayer. Then Detective Sergeant Steve Smith spoke about Graceland. He described the circumstances of her murder and talked about notifying her family of the resolution of her case. The TPS and OPP contacted the families right before Christmas and told them the news. He said they were all elated to have the cases solved. They won't know the why, but at least they know the who. Detective Sergeant Smith said of the offender, Kenneth Smith, quote, he did not know any of the victims that we know of. What we do know is that three separate murders equals a serial killer and that's what Kenneth Smith was. Detective Sergeant Smith talked about the linkage between the DNA samples, which belied the lack of pattern to the crimes of Kenneth Smith. It seems to be crimes of opportunity more than anything, Smith said. The only thing that linked them was the offender's DNA. This case has haunted our office. When you have an unknown DNA profile and no matches in the National DNA Data bank, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. We had such a complex mixture of DNA and It wasn't until 2025 that we were able to deconvolute the mixture and get it up into the database that we needed to identify our offender. These cases would never have been solved without this technology, said Smith, referring to igg. It makes all the cases that were previously unsolvable now solvable. At the conclusion of the press conference, the authorities requested that the public come forward with any information whatsoever. This investigation does not end here. We know that there are unanswered questions and we hope that anyone with information will come forward and help us complete the story. Superintendent Gano said Detective Sergeant Smith made a similar plea. He said they continued to resubmit items of physical evidence to the center of Forensic Sciences for testing to try to find more offender DNA in cold cases. After the case solving announcement, the Toronto Star reported that the OPP described Claire Sampson as a family person who had several siblings. Both of her parents were deceased, per the opp. According to her family, Claire had a beautiful soul. She was a young, caring and loving person who was taken away too soon. The Greenidge and Prince families refrained from making statements. Detective Sergeant Steve Smith participated in the Closer look podcast, saying, quote, this is one of the cases we were Fixated on both the OPP and our investigators. They wanted nothing more than to solve this case just because it was so unique. It was three vulnerable women minding their own business and all three were taken and murdered viciously. So when we were able to actually say 100% that Kenneth Smith was our offender, it was unbelievable for our investigators. Everybody was just so happy. The families were thrilled they finally found out who actually did this. When you have a family member murdered, imagine the suspicion that goes around. Was it a boyfriend, was it someone in the family? They wonder whether they are standing beside the offender. You don't know who you can trust. We can't give them the why it happened, but we can give them the person who did this. And it takes the suspicion off people they thought could have committed these acts. End quote. Smith pointed out that the randomness of Kenneth Smith's victim selection defied the normal pattern which dictates that victims normally know their killers. And he said that randomness, the stranger on stranger murders, meant that without DNA, these murders would never have been solved. Quote, we debate that in our office all the time, what these people are thinking, Smith said, are they able to sleep at night? I mean, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Have they just put this out of their mind like it never actually happened to them, or are they thinking about it every time they go to bed? Do they live this every day or have they just put it completely out of their mind? This person, he had done it so many times. I don't know if it really bothered him. I think he enjoyed what he was doing. Kenneth Leslie Smith was born on October 16, 1946 in South Porcupine, Ontario, near Timmins. He married Joanne Easton in 1970 and he and his wife had one son whom I am not naming. Born in 1973, Smith was mostly estranged from his own extended family who seemed to recognize that he was a bad seed. That's probably because he was convicted of rape in 1976. He was living in Angus at the time and pleaded guilty in March of 1976 to rape and kidnapping. On July 30, 1975, he had picked up a 14 year old Barry girl who was hitchhiking and forced oral sex on her. There are limited details, but he was arrested five months later in December 1975 for the crime. Smith's defense attorney, pushing for a light sentence, told the court his client had received successful treatment in a mental health center. I beg to differ. And the defense lawyer argued, since being released from that center, Smith had been Married, gone back to school and was contributing to society. Well, the judge didn't buy it and In March of 76 sentenced Smith to eight years and psychiatric counseling was recommended for the prisoner. An article in the Barry examiner states, quote, Mr. Justice Weatherston said the prime purpose of the prison sentence was protection of society because Smith and appeared to have an incurable illness. End quote. Nonetheless, Smith was paroled in 1981. He killed Christine Prince in 1982 and Claire Sampson in 1983. By that time he was well into his 30s and was almost certainly the older man with thinning hair whose car Claire got into as described by her friends. And sadly I have zero details on this, but I was told that after killing Claire, Smith was convicted of abducting and sexually assaulting another woman and did two different short prison terms for for sexual offenses. Then he was released and killed Graceland Greenidge. This explains the 14 year break between his known murders. He was in prison for some of that time. Of course he was not connected to any of the three murders at the time and that stint in prison in the late 80s was his last. It's unclear why Smith was not considered by TPS as they conducted a sweep of known sex offenders in the wake of Christine Prince's murder. Although I suspect it was because at the time his previous offense was not in Toronto but in Barrie, 110km away. As I mentioned, Smith was estranged from his family. His brothers were as much as 17 years younger than he was. When finally the TPS tracked down Smith's extended family, they did not know much about him and were not in contact with his son, born in 73. His brothers did not want any involvement with what TPS had to say about Kenneth Smith. It is known that during the time of the known murders he committed, Smith worked throughout the city of Toronto, including working as a furniture salesman. How ironic then that the way he was identified was through his blood left on a table leg. Smith moved to Windsor, Ontario in 2013 and died there of cancer in 2019 at the age of 72. I spoke with Detective Sergeant Steve Smith at length about the Kenneth Smith case. As he said, Kenneth Smith is a true enigma. His crimes fit no pattern. His victims everyone from a 14 year old white girl to a black woman in her 40s. He sexually assaulted some women and girls but let them live even after he had already killed some other victims. It's completely unknown what triggered his attacks. Detective Sergeant Smith believes that Kenneth Smith was suffering from severe mental health issues. That much is apparent. Let's consider the three cases before us today, Christine Prince, taken in a violent smash and grab situation that appeared to be 100% a crime of opportunity. Kenneth Smith happened to be driving by as she was walking the short blocks home that night. This was an impulsive crime committed by a predator simply because the opportunity presented itself. Claire Sampson, on the other hand, was seen getting into a car with a man matching Smith's description. Did they have a prior relationship or was she looking for a good time and got into the car with the wrong man? Claire's cause of death was very different from Christine's, which was caused by bludgeoning and drowning. Claire was strangled and shot. As a convicted felon, Kenneth Smith should not have had access to firearms and police have not been able to connect him to any Graceland. Greenidge's case is the most bizarre among the three and the one I can explain least. TPS interviewed Graceland's family and friends and were told that Graceland did not hang out with white people and would never ever have opened her apartment door to a white guy at night. Yet somehow Kenneth Smith got in. I have a theory about that. Detective Sergeant Smith and I considered this. Remember that Graceland lived in a building that had a lot of criminal activity. I believe that Smith was in the building for some reason and saw her that night as she went to the parking lot to turn off the lights in her car. He targeted her because she was alone and vulnerable. He followed her to her apartment and waylaid her at the door, attacking her inside. Surely his goal was to sexually assault her. But she fought like hell and injured him badly and he bludgeoned, stabbed and suffocated her and split. What is truly puzzling is that he locked the door behind him, which reportedly required a key. Was he perhaps working in the building as a super and therefore had a master key? No one knows. If he did, that could also explain how he gained access to the apartment in the first place. A truly terrifying thought. I asked Detective Sergeant Smith whether the appeal for information from the public pertaining to Kenneth Smith had flushed out any more victims. Surprisingly, he said no. Some people called in who knew Smith, but no more criminal activity had been exposed. They did not contact his ex wife or the 14 year old survivor of the 1975 sexual attack. They did not feel the need to open those old wounds. At least the TPS got to close some old wounds, those of the Prince, Sampson and Greenidge families. That is going to have to be enough. Thank you so much to Detective Sergeant Steve Smith of the Toronto Police Service for speaking with me about this case and to Katie Crossman for providing me with information about the genealogy. And if you are one of the bad guys, they are coming for you. Thanks for listening to this episode of dnaid. Before you leave, please let me tell you about some important things related to the show. If you'd like to support this podcast
- [55:45]
Podcast Host (Jessica Bettencourt)
and in the process get access to early and ad free episodes as well as bonus content like crime scene photos, you can sign up for a Patreon subscription for only $5 a month by heading over to patreon.com dnaid of course, you're welcome to contribute more than $5 a month. We rely on Patreon funds to pay for the original source materials I use
- [56:08]
Narrator (Jessica Bettencourt)
to research each episode.
- [56:09]
Podcast Host (Jessica Bettencourt)
If Patreon isn't your thing, you can also show your support with with an ABJAC Insider subscription through Apple Podcasts. It costs just $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year. Your ABJAC Insider subscription will give you the same benefits for not only dnaid but for all of the shows on the Abjak Network like Killer Communications and Campus Killings. Head over to Apple Podcasts and find the DNAID page or look for the
- [56:36]
Narrator (Jessica Bettencourt)
Abjak Network to get started. If you're on social media, we'd love
- [56:40]
Podcast Host (Jessica Bettencourt)
to interact with you there. DNAID is on every major social media platform. Search your favorite platforms for DNAID podcasts to find us. We also have a YouTube channel and our website is DNAIDpodcast.com. you can find links to all of these anytime in our show Notes. If you need to reach the show, contact us by emailing dnaid podcastmail.com finally, if you want to pick up some fun DNA ID merch and represent the show, visit the store at www.customizedgirl.coms DNAIDpodcast. DNAID is researched, written and hosted by me, Jessica Bettencourt. It's produced by me and Mike Morford of abjack Entertainment Music by Connor Bettencourt
- [57:27]
Jerry Insurance Advertiser
Tired of your car insurance rate going up? Even with a clean driving record, you're not alone. That's why there's Jerry, your proactive insurance assistant. Jerry compares rates side by side from over 50 top insurers and helps you switch with ease. Jerry even tracks market rates and alerts you when it's best to shop. No spam calls, no hidden fees. Drivers who save with Jerry could save over $1,300 a year. Switch with confidence, Download the Jerry app or visit Jerry AI Libsyn today. That's J E R R Y AI
- [58:01]
Libsyn Ads Advertiser
Libsyn Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now, and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements, or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads, go to libsyn ads.com that's L I B S Y N ads.com today
- [58:45]
Narrator (Jessica Bettencourt)
came as fast as I could. It's been too long.
- [58:47]
Toy Story 5 Advertiser
Cowboy from Disney and Pixar. So that's Lily Pad.
- [58:50]
Jerry Insurance Advertiser
What are you, some sort of old man toy?
- [58:52]
Narrator (Jessica Bettencourt)
What? She thinks you're old because you're bald.
- [58:54]
Libsyn Ads Advertiser
Woody.
- [58:55]
Toy Story 5 Advertiser
This Friday, toys are for play. Tech is for everything. Toy Story is back.
- [58:59]
Narrator (Jessica Bettencourt)
I want to talk to you. Device the long toy.
- [59:01]
Toy Story 5 Advertiser
Turn her off. I responded.
- [59:03]
Narrator (Jessica Bettencourt)
I have plastic fingers.
- [59:04]
Toy Story 5 Advertiser
Featuring Taylor Swift's All New Song. I knew it. I knew you available now. No way.
- [59:08]
Narrator (Jessica Bettencourt)
Oh, yeah.
- [59:09]
Toy Story 5 Advertiser
Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 5. Rated PG. Parental guidance suggested only in theaters Friday. Tickets available now.