Canadian police announced that they have identified the man who raped and killed a 16-year-old girl in 1975.
Sharon Pryor was on her way to meet friends at a pizza restaurant near her home in Montreal when she disappeared.
His body was found three days later in Longueu Forest on Montreal’s south shore, but despite investigating more than 100 suspects over the years, police have never made any arrests.
This week, however, they said they were 100% sure Sharon was killed by Franklin Maywood Romine.
Romy was living in Montreal at the time of Sharon’s death and had a long criminal record, including a 1974 rape conviction.
He matched the description of the suspect and his vehicle matched the tire tracks found near Sharon’s body.
Sharon’s younger sister, Doreen, said: “Solving Sharon’s case will never bring Sharon back, but knowing her killer is no longer on this earth and can no longer kill gives us some closure.”
DNA was found at the scene in 1975, but it was not enough to be tested or used in court.
Franklin Maywood Romine. Photo: Longuey Police
However, it was kept safe in the hope that one day better technology would mean it could be used to find Sharon’s killer.
The samples were sent to a West Virginia state lab in 2019 and later matched to Romine’s relatives using genealogy websites.
Romine died in 1982 under mysterious circumstances, but his brothers’ DNA was close to samples found near Sharon’s body.
Earlier this month, police exhumed Romine’s body from a West Virginia cemetery and found his DNA matched.
The mother received the news “with many emotions”.
Yvonne Pryor, Sharon’s mother, is in her 80s and has spent her life trying to keep her daughter’s murder in the news in the hope that the killer will be found.
Police said he and other family members were immediately told the news in a private meeting “with a lot of emotion.”
Hopefully to the families of the victims looking for answers
They added that the technology used to solve Sharon’s case “will undoubtedly bring hope to the dozens and dozens of victims’ families who are still searching for answers today.”
“While this technique is not applicable to all unsolved cases, (police) are committed to not ignoring any leads and using every tool at their disposal to allow the families and loved ones of these homicide victims to get their answers.” need”.