Cold case of murdered Toronto girl solved 51 years later with DNA

globalnews.ca:

cold case of a teenage girl who went missing in Toronto and was later found murdered has been solved using DNA technology.In a press conference on Wednesday, YRP said investigators were able to solve the murder of 16-year-old Yvonne Leroux by identifying the suspect they say is responsible for her death with the help of genetic genealogy.“Despite the sad circumstances of Yvonne’s death, I am gratified to be able to deliver her family this resolution, if not closure,” said Alvaro Almeida, deputy chief of investigations.“I can’t imagine living how difficult it must have been living all these years with such a loss and not knowing, all this time, who was responsible,” Almeida continued.Leroux was last seen alive on Nov. 29, 1972, around 10 p.m., walking in the Oakdale Road and Finch Avenue West in Toronto.The following morning, police said her body was discovered by a passerby about 24 kilometres north — in the middle of 16th Sideroad, between Jane and Keele streets, in the Township of King.

Investigators confirmed Leroux was murdered in King Township.She had sustained blunt force trauma to her head, police said, deeming it a homicide. For more than five decades, despite investigative efforts by officers, public appeals and monetary rewards, the person responsible for Leroux’s death was never found.A break in the case came when investigators sought the use of investigative genetic genealogy (IGG).Police said investigators used the suspect’s DNA found at the crime scene to generate a DNA profile and then uploaded it to public genealogical databases.IGG data is used by law enforcement, when all other leads have been exhausted, as it can identify relatives of the person whose DNA was found at the crime scene, then use that