Regional Murder Mysteries

[Magpie]

Valerie Anastacia Drew, 13.

Events:Left her Wiley Street home on Sept. 25, 1970, walking north with two teenage male friends who were hitchhiking to Peterborough. She was reported missing by family the next day and searchers found her body on the evening of Sept. 27 in the area that is now south of Conacher Drive.


As an aside, this is the neighbourhood I moved to when I returned to Canada in 1980. It's almost entire developed now, but even when I lived there, there were lots of open fields in the area. I never heard anything about the case until a couple of years ago when Kingston police started a public campaign to bring attention to several cold cases on their books.

http://www.unsolvedcanada.ca/index.php?topic=1993.0

[sdreid]

Thanks Matt and Magpie. You get me reading up on these cases I either don't remember or haven't heard of.

[sdreid]

Speaking of possible budding serial killers, Richie Neavear, 18, was found stabbed to death in a patch of tall weeds south of Pekin, IL on July 14, 1995.

On September seventh of 2009, 27-year-old Dustin Englebrect was found buried on his property in Mason County, also south of the city. Police are not releasing the cause of death but, since people don't bury themselves, we can safely assume that it was a homicide. There are several men who are suspects in both murders.

Quote changed to correct name from Randy to Dustin.

A man named Randy Deskin was tried and acquitted for Englebrecht's murder. He reportedly also denied any knowledge of the Neavear slaying. This month Deskin was found hanging from a tree. I'm not sure if murder has totally been ruled out but the authorities seem to be pretty sure it was suicide.

[Stan41]

The disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, President of the Teamsters Union in Detroit July 31, 1975 has always puzzled me.
Stan

[sdreid]

Yes, that's a big one in a pretty big region.

[Beowulf]

Thanks Matt and Magpie. You get me reading up on these cases I either don't remember or haven't heard of.

Yes, and some are quite disturbing. Sheesh.

[sdreid]

Odd how some cases gain national attention while others don't even though they seem at least as interesting.

[sdreid]

Even cases that are huge locally sometime go unmentioned beyond that.

[Cogidubnus]

sic transit gloria mundi

You could be right Stan...some of the big US cases you've mentioned in the past have been fresh to me as a Brit...and I bet some of our domestic cases have slipped beneath the average US citizen's radar for the same reason...I'll bet for example there are a lot of folk left pond who never heard of Harold Shipman or Fred & Rose West...and ditto right pond for, say, the Black Dahlia...

Interestingly the latter came up in a pub quiz a year or so back, and only the wife and I had ever heard of the case by that name, never mind the name Elizabeth Short...

Perhaps we're all wierdos on Casebook!

All the best

Dave

[Graham]

Dave,

I had a customer just round the corner from Cromwell Street, and I can tell you that most of the outside-broadcast vans that swarmed to the area were either Japanese or American. There must have been something in what Fred and Rose got up to that appeals to the Nipponese and Yank appetites....

G

[sdreid]

Yes, it works both ways. Probably 99% of Americans have never heard of the Julia Wallace Case even though it's one of the top cases anywhere ever. I'd not heard of it until the early 1980s.

[Graham]

Ya could be right, Stan. The first I ever heard of the Black Dahlia was in a 'murder compendium' book by our own dear Colin Wilson. Yet I'd read loads about Zodiac and Lizzie Borden. Strange, or what? And Ted Bundy, of course. And not forgetting (ever) the Lindbergh Kidnap Case, which after Maybrick and Hanratty is my own personal favourite.

G

[Limehouse]

Sally McGrath disappeared after being seen with a man in a pub in Peterborough on July 11, 1979. Eight months later her body was found in a shallow grave in woodlands at the edge of the city. Several local men were questioned by her murder remained unsolved for over 30 years.

Last year, as a result of a 'cold case' review, police arrested Paul Taylor. he had been questioned at the time of the murder but relased due to a lack of evidence. Previous to Sally's murder, Taylor had been accused of several rapes, but had not been charged.

On December 4th (this week), after an eight week trial, during which Taylor also stood accused of at least two rapes and several attempted rapes dating from around the time of Sally's murder, Taylor was convicted of Sally's murder and the sexual offences. He was senteced to a minimum of 18 years in prison.

Taylor was a prolific sexual offender, but due to the way sexual offences against women were viewed at the time, he had evaded punishment. The cold case review allowed police to apply a fresh approach and re-interview women who had been attacked by Taylor all those years ago.

Sally is buried in a cemetery opposite my home. She is remembered locally as a bright and friendly girl. Her family, who still live locally, are relieved to see someone finally brought to justice for her murder.

[sdreid]

Eighteen years sounds like an extremely light sentence for murder.

[Limehouse]

Eighteen years sounds like an extremely light sentence for murder.

Yes, it is a light sentence, and it also includes sentencing for the rapes and sexual attacks. However, it is a minimum sentence, so he could serve more. He is now 60 years old, and will therefore be at least 78 before he is released.

What a long time Sally's family had to wait for justice.