In recent years new light was shed on three unsolved queer-related murders after facial reconstructions allowed police specialists to identify the victims.
The bodies of Richard “Dickie” Hovey and Eric Jones were found in 1967 but were only identified in 2006 and 2009 respectively. Hovey, a musician from Fredericton, had moved to Toronto in 1966 and was 17 when he was murdered, his body left near Schomberg, Ontario.
Jones, whose body was found in Balsam Lake Provincial Park, was identified in 2009 after his Noelville, Ontario, family saw a news show about the case. He was 18 years old and living with his aunt in Toronto at the time of his death.
A third case, involving a young white male discovered dead in Markham, Ontario, in 1980, has yet to be solved. A forensic reconstruction of his face was released in 2010.
The body was discovered with high-heeled red shoes and police believe the victim was trans.
Similarities in the way the men were killed have led police to believe the murders are connected. They think convicted serial killer James Henry Greenridge, currently behind bars in BC, may be responsible.
Greenridge, who is eligible for parole in 2014 and has an extensive rap sheet, including victims in Ontario, was living in Toronto in 1967, when Jones and Hovey were murdered.
He later spent time in prison but was free in 1980, when the unidentified victim was killed.
His crime history shows violent acts from 1955 to 1982, when he was convicted of the first-degree murder of a 24-year-old Vancouver woman. His victims were always tied, stripped, raped, stabbed and left in rural or wooded areas, leading investigators to believe he may be responsible for these unsolved Ontario murders.
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