Three decades after killing, Canadian police zero in on who did it

  • Three decades after killing, Canadian police zero in on who did it


Hoover died in 2015, police said.

"Today's announcement is only the first very important answer in this ongoing investigation", Ramer said. It has obviously generated many more questions for us.

Jessop was abducted from her home outside Toronto on a school day afternoon in early October. The child's body was discovered almost three months later, on December 31, in a wooded area in Sutherland.

Authorities ruled that she had been raped before being stabbed to death.

Hoover, who was 28 at the time of the murder, was known to the little girl's family but was never considered a suspect.

"It's not that we start with Calvin Hoover", said Staff Supt. "Suicide was too good for a person who committed such a horrific crime on such a attractive innocent child".

Hoover and his wife apparently had a "neighbour acquaintance" relationship with the family at the time, police said.

DNA found at crime scenes was compared to the database at GEDmatch, a free genealogy website, which led investigators to the suspect's relatives and ultimately him.

The DNA technique that identified the killer is referred to as genetic genealogy. Ontario's Centre of Forensic Sciences did, however, have a sample of Hoover's blood.

I believe there is no greater acknowledgement of his exoneration than the continued efforts of the Toronto Police Service to identify the person responsible for Christine's murder. "I think we are all genuinely relieved that the person actually responsible for this has finally been identified". Police did not confirm this at a news conference on Thursday, saying only that there was no foul play involved in his death. While he did have a "dated" criminal record, it was of no significance to the killing.

"It is our hope that [we] may jog someone's memory about the events surrounding Christine's disappearance". They also said Hoover may have worked for Christine's father at one point.

Decades earlier, Jessop's 24-year-old neighbour, Guy Paul Morin was wrongly convicted in the case.

"Christine's murder was a bad and tragic event". "There are no winners".

Police say he would have been charged with Jessop's murder had he been alive.

However, in 1995 Morin was exonerated due to advancement in DNA testing.

Morin issued a statement through his attorney on Thursday, saying he's relieved for the Jessop family. "When DNA exonerated me in January, 1995, I was sure that one day DNA would reveal the real killer and now it has".

Morin's wrongful conviction - based in part on police and Crown tunnel vision and jailhouse informants - was subject of a judicial inquiry.

"I can't imagine how they've felt for all these years and how they feel now", he said.

"I am grateful that the Toronto Police stayed on the case and have now finally solved it".

"If you find enough of these distant genetic matches, you can use these matches in conjunction with family triangulate where this DNA comes from and that can be used to find the identity of unknown victims, and in this case, an unknown perpetrator".