A group of amateur detectives in London, Ont., hopes their renewed interest and research into a 66-year-old cold case will shed new light on the death of a five-year-old girl.
Susan Cadieux was playing outside St. Mary’s School at 345 Lyle St. on Jan. 6, 1956, with her two brothers and a friend when a man approached the group.
“A man came and abducted her,” Bent Romnes said this week from a research room at the London Public Library’s Central Branch, where he’s been digging into the case. “He abducted her and left her at the railway tracks still alive. She died from exposure.”
At the time, police released a sketch of the man, who was described as white, 30 to 40 years old, tall, thin and unshaven. He was wearing a light brown overcoat that was unbuttoned, unbuckled black galoshes and a dark Russian-style or army Melton hat with ear flaps.
“It’s a case that touched all of London,” he said. “The murder was so brutal.”
Romnes and two other members of the Facebook group Sleuths of London Ontario met at the tracks on William Street last Friday to commemorate the anniversary of Susan’s death.
“A post-mortem examination revealed that [Susan] had been sexually assaulted, and evidence was gathered from the crime scene and the post-mortem examination,” said Det. Insp. Alex Krygsman of the London Police Service’s Investigative Services Branch.
