The brand new head of the Montreal police power’s main crimes unit is taking goal at chilly instances.
Mélanie Dupont, who was appointed because the unit’s commander in November, stated in an interview on Tuesday that the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal will assign 16 full-time detectives to sort out unsolved homicides.
Beforehand, the power had six detectives assigned to chilly instances, however they lacked the time to work on them as a result of they have been pulled away to assist at any time when there was a brand new homicide within the metropolis, she stated.
“Blended with the murder unit, it is not going quick sufficient,” Dupont stated. “It is higher if it is separate.”
There are greater than 800 unsolved homicides within the Montreal police information. Dupont stated she did not count on the improved chilly case unit to resolve all of them, however she hoped it will be capable to start with instances the place DNA had been collected.
With new instruments, like genetic family tree, the place police use broader DNA databases to seek out suspects’ kin, Dupont stated she hoped to provide some decision to households whose family members had been killed.
CBC explains how police lastly decided past all doubt who killed 16-year-old Montrealer Sharron Prior in 1975 regardless of no new proof being delivered to their consideration.
“We would like the identical solutions as them,” she stated. “We wish to work on that. Now we’ve got the chance to do it.”
Dupont stated the brand new chilly case squad would use no matter instruments at their disposal: along with genetic family tree, there at the moment are new DNA instruments that may produce a suspect’s profile from a a lot smaller pattern. She stated investigators would additionally solicit the general public’s assist to push ahead instances which have stalled, something they have rarely done before.
The instruments have been profitable elsewhere. Longueuil police notably used genetic family tree to resolve Sharron Prior’s murder in 2023. Quebec provincial police additionally lately tracked down the man who killed 19-year-old Guylaine Potvin in 2000 utilizing Y chromosome evaluation — one other new DNA software.
Toronto police have additionally introduced breakthroughs in chilly instances because of genetic family tree, however Montreal police have but to have the same breakthrough.
Stéphane Luce, a personal investigator and president of Meurtres et Disparitions Irresolus du Quebec (MDIQ), a web site that tracks unsolved murders and disappearances, stated households are ready for solutions from the SPVM.
Luce stated he was stunned to be taught that there have been solely six investigators working chilly instances on the SPVM and that they have been being pulled to work on new instances.
“I may really feel it from the households that there was no responses from the instances which can be within the SPVM’s court docket — however now I do know why,” he stated. “The SPVM must show to those households that they are working arduous on their instances.”
Marc Bellemare, a lawyer who has for many years represented the households of chilly case victims, stated the SPVM bolstering its chilly case unit was excellent news.
He stated lots of the households he has represented have been annoyed by what they known as a scarcity of transparency from the investigators and police forces engaged on their relative’s case. He stated they’re all used to listening to the identical drained phrases from police: “the investigation continues.”
“Households need the most effective investigators, they need the most effective folks,” he stated.
Manon Lisée, whose brother, Stéphane Gauthier, was kidnapped in Montreal in 1982 and located useless two days later, stated she has been pushing the police for data for years.
“Each three, 4 years I name the police,” she stated. “I need information however they by no means have one thing vital to inform me.”
She stated victims’ kin, like her, must battle to get any data in any respect from police.
She, too, stated the brand new and improved chilly case squad was excellent news.
“It provides us hope,” she stated. “Alternatively, my brother is considered one of many.”
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