DNA analysis has allowed Canadian police to identify a suspect in two 1983 murders, one of whose victims was the daughter of one of the founders of mining giant Barrick Gold, authorities announced Monday.
Susan Tice, a 45-year-old mother, and Erin Gilmour, a 22-year-old student, were found, four months apart, stabbed to death in their Toronto apartments after being sexually assaulted.
Nearly forty years later, it was “advances in science” that allowed Toronto police to arrest Joseph George Sutherland, Inspector Steve Smith said at a news conference.
“A relief that someone has been arrested”
After linking the two murders in 2000 through the DNA of the suspect left at the scene, authorities used genetic genealogy “to identify a family” and thus “reduce the number of suspects,” the inspector said.
This investigative method consists of comparing a suspect’s DNA with the family tree of a distant relative.
“If we hadn’t used this technology, we would never have found his name,” Steve Smith added, adding that Joseph George Sutherland had never been suspected before.
“This is a day our family has been waiting for almost our entire lives,” said Sean McCowan, Erin Gilmour’s brother. “In a way, it’s a relief that someone has been arrested. But it also brings back so many memories of Erin and her brutal and senseless murder of her,” he added.
An aspiring fashion designer, Erin Gilmour was the daughter of David Gilmour, co-founder of Barrick Gold, one of the world’s largest gold mining companies. She was not related to the second victim, Susan Tice, a family therapist and mother of four, police said.
Charged with first degree murder, Joseph George Sutherland, now 61, is due to appear in early December. He could also be linked to other unsolved cases, added authorities who are continuing their investigation of him.
Source: BFM TV
