A Longueuil police crest is seen in Longueuil, Que., Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. Police in a Montreal suburb are scheduled to provide an update today on the investigation into the 1975 murder of a 16-year-old girl after exhuming the remains of a suspect earlier this month. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
LONGUEUIL, Que. – Montreal-area police say they have solved one of the highest-profile cold cases in Quebec history.
Police in Longueuil, Que., said today that DNA evidence allows them to be 100 per cent certain that Franklin Maywood Romine murdered 16-year-old Sharron Prior in 1975.
The body of Romine, who died in 1982 at the age of 36, was exhumed from a West Virginia cemetery in early May for DNA testing intended to confirm his link to the crime.
Longueuil police says the DNA of Romine – who had a long criminal history – matches a sample found at the murder scene, and he also matched a witness’s physical description of the suspect.
The rape and killing of Prior had gone unsolved since she disappeared on March 29, 1975, after setting out to meet friends at a pizza parlour near her home in Montreal’s Pointe-St-Charles neighbourhood.
Her body was found three days later in a wooded area in Longueuil, on Montreal’s South Shore.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2023.
