"Toronto police say they have linked three cold cases from the 1980s and identified the killer of three women over the span of five years as the same man. Through DNA testing, or investigative genetic genealogy, police have identified Kenneth Smith as the killer of Christine Prince, Gracelyn Greenridge and Claire Samson, Det. Sgt. Steve Smith said in a video statement provided by Toronto police Thursday. The three women were killed in separate incidents between 1982 and 1987, Smith said."
"Prince was murdered in 1982, Samson in 1983 and Greenridge in 1987. The cases had no leads and went cold shortly after the investigations began, Smith said. In 2016, he said police found a link between the murders of Prince and Samson. Then in 2017, they found a link between those two murders and Greenridge's, Smith said. From there, police began doing DNA testing, he said. They started using investigative genetic genealogy in 2022 and identified Kenneth Smith in 2025 as the perpetrator of all three murders."
""Unfortunately, he's deceased, but we're able to identify him and say that he was the killer," Det. Sgt. Smith said. Police believe Kenneth Smith may have been linked to other homicides in the city."
Three separate murders of Christine Prince (1982), Claire Samson (1983) and Gracelyn Greenridge (1987) were linked as related offences. The investigations produced no leads initially and the cases went cold. A forensic review established connections between Prince and Samson in 2016 and extended that link to Greenridge in 2017. Subsequent DNA testing and the use of investigative genetic genealogy beginning in 2022 led to the identification of Kenneth Smith as the perpetrator in 2025. Kenneth Smith is deceased. Investigators believe he may be connected to additional homicides in the city.
Read at www.cbc.ca
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]