It is a 36-year-old affair that is coming to an end in Canada.
The murderer of a nine-year-old girl has just been identified thanks to her DNA, police in Toronto (province of Ontario) announced Thursday.
The kidnapping and death of this child in 1984 shocked Canada and led to the conviction of an innocent person.
The investigators explained to have discovered the identity of the killer by sending a sample of semen DNA taken from the girl's underwear to an American laboratory specializing in "genetic genealogy."
He managed to bring out the name of Calvin Hoover, who died in 2015.
This man, 28 years old at the time of the facts, committed suicide according to several media.
"If he were alive today, Toronto police would arrest Calvin Hoover for the murder of Christine Jessop," Acting Toronto Police Chief James Ramer told a press conference.
He had neighborly relations with the family of the young victim, who was kidnapped, raped and then stabbed near Toronto.
30 years in prison for nothing, € 800,000 in compensation
Christine Jessop was kidnapped after leaving her home in Queensville (north of Toronto) on October 3, 1984. Her body was found nearly three months later in a field some fifty kilometers away.
A neighbor of the Jessops, Guy Paul Morin, was arrested in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison for the murder.
He had always claimed his innocence, before being finally exonerated by DNA analyzes and then released in 2015. After this miscarriage of justice, the government of Ontario had paid him $ 1.25 million (800,000 euros ) compensation.
The discovery of the identity of the murderer of the girl has raised new questions about the last days of the life of little Christine, said the spokesman for the police who launched an appeal for witnesses.
Guy Paul Morin, notified in person of this discovery by the Toronto police, said he was happy that his honor was definitively washed.
“It's something I've always hoped for,” he told reporters.
“The justice system let me down, but science saved me.
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