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POLICE CLOSE FILE ON THE NATION RIVER LADY CASE Langford travelled to Montréal in April 1975. She never returned home, her family in Tennessee reported her missing, and then waited 47 years for word of what happened to her. In March 2022 the remains of The Nation River Lady, now identified as Jewell Langford, were repatriated to her family in the United States for a final memorial service and burial in her home soil.
DI Nadeau said, during a phone interview July 7 about the final resolution of the case. «We’ve always kept this case going, so it’s very rewarding. We had a great team working on this with many dedicated detectives.» The Nation River Lady May 3 1975, the remains of a woman were found on the shore of The Nation River near the Highway 417 Bridge at Casselman. There were no clues to her identity at the time and police were unable then to determine how the woman’s body got to where itw as found. The mystery of The Nation River Lady remained an open file for 47 years with the original investigating officers retiring and other detectives taking up the challenge of the case. Over the years the file acquired forensic artist drawings of what the woman might have looked like and, in 2017, three- dimensional computer imaging technology provided an even more accurate version of the mystery woman’s features. Throughout the decades police maintained a dedicated tip line for the case, collected more evidence as it turned up, and made several public appeals for any information that could help identify the woman and lead to a solution to the case. In 2019 the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto was able to provide an updated DNA profile of the woman, using material collected from the remains. The DNA profile was sent to a lab in the United States that specialized in doing genetic family history tracing by doing whole genome sequencing. The DNA sample proved a match for samples from two other people who were listed in a family DNA tree provided by the DNA DOE Project. The following year police identified The Nation River Lady as Jewell «Lalla» Langford, 48, an American citizen born in March 1927. Her original birth name was Parchman. The OPP believes this is the first recorded ins- tance in Canadian policing history where forensic genealogy helped to identify human remains. The missing Jewell Jewell Langford was well-known member of the Jackson, Tennessee business community. She and her former husband co-owned a spa.
Police delayed any public announcement of the identification of The Nation River Lady because the investigation was continuing. The OPP now worked with the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) to reexamine all the evidence gathered over the past decades concerning the Langford missing person case file. What became a joint international inves- tigation over the past three years involved the OPP, the SPVM, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, and the Canadian and American federal justice departments. The end result was a charge of murder filed against Rodney Nichols, 81, now living in Hollywood, Florida. The joint investigation determined that Nichols and Langford were acquainted with each other. Nadeau said that police are not disclosing most of the specific details of the past three years of investigation yet because they are still going through the process of having Nichols extradited to Canada for trial. «What I can say is that they lived together for a very short time in Montréal,» he said. Police and the Crown Counsel’s Office filed the charge of murder with the provincial court office in L’Orignal late last year. All other details of the case are withheld as the investigation is still ongoing, including making the final decision about extradition of Nichols. DI Nadeau remains in contact with Langford’s family as part of the continuing investigation. «We’ve given them some resolution now,» he said, adding that the family has received calls from other people with missing loved ones «and now they too have hope.»
Le mystère de la dame de la rivière Nation, vieux de cinq décennies, est désormais résolu. La police a confirmé que le corps d’une femme retrouvé le long de la rivière Nation près de Casselman il y a près de 50 ans est bien celui de Jewell Langford du Tennessee (États-Unis). Un homme en Floride est accusé de son meurtre et la police ainsi que les représentants de la Couronne travaillent sur les détails de l’extradition de cet homme vers le Canada pour qu’il y soit jugé. —photo fournie
GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
the five-decade-old mystery of The Nation River Lady and the start of the international legal process to bring the man responsible for her death to trial in Canada. For Detective- Inspector Daniel Nadeau, CIB deputy director, it is a satisfying finish to a case that has occupied him and other OPP officers and investigators for many years. «In 2015 I started working on this case,»
She has a name now and police also have a name for the man believed responsible for the disappearance and eventual death of The Nation River Lady. The OPP Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) announced to media July 5 the end of
RECYCLE ACTION ABANDONNE SON PROGRAMME DE BOÎTES BLEUES
de recyclage de l’entreprise ont permis à de nombreuses personnes d’acquérir de l’expérience et des compétences profes- sionnelles au fil des ans, tout en offrant à plusieurs municipalités de la région de Pres- cott-Russell un programme de collecte de boîtes bleues pour les matières recyclables telles que le papier journal, les bouteilles de verre, le carton, les boîtes de conserve et d’autres articles. Recycle Action a annoncé, par le biais d’un communiqué de presse aux médias, qu’elle n’assurera plus le programme de collecte des bacs bleus pour les matières recyclables dans la région, en raison de l’entrée en vigueur, cet été, du nouveau programme de responsabilité des produc- teurs du gouvernement provincial pour toutes les matières recyclables de l’Ontario. Les municipalités doivent désormais passer un contrat avec les entreprises que le gouvernement provincial a approuvées par l’intermédiaire de la Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority (RPRA), pour gérer le nouveau système de collecte des bacs bleus
responsable du point de vue du producteur. «Il est très décevant de devoir mettre fin à ses activités après tant d’efforts, a déclaré Robert Lessard, directeur des opérations de Recycle Action. Nous avons fourni un bon service local. Nous devons maintenant nous retrousser les manches et nous réinventer pour continuer à offrir de l’emploi à notre personnel.» Recycle Action continuera de servir ses clients commerciaux, mais n’assurera plus son programme de collecte des bacs bleus résidentiels pour les villes, les villages et les zones rurales de Prescott-Russell. Les résidents peuvent se rendre au centre de tri de Recycle Action sur la rue Spence à Hawkesbury et y déposer du carton, de la mousse de polystyrène propre et des déchets électroniques comme de vieux appareils photo numériques, des écrans d’ordinateur et d’autres articles semblables pour le recyclage. L’entreprise facturera désormais des frais de dépôt pour ces articles.
Things are quieter now at the Recycle Action recyclable waste processing facility on Spence Street in Hawkesbury now that its blue box collection program is closed down, due to the provincial government’s new producer-responsible setup. —photo Gregg Chamberlain
Recycle Action fait partie du Groupe Convex Prescott-Russell, une société à but non lucratif basée à Hawkesbury, qui se concentre sur le développement des com- pétences et les programmes d’emploi pour aider les personnes handicapées à trouver du travail et/ou à acquérir une expérience professionnelle pratique, qui les aidera à trouver un emploi à l’avenir. Les activités
RÉDACTION EAP nouvelles@eap.on.ca
Une partie du programme d’emploi local de Recycle Action est victime du nou- veau plan du gouvernement provincial pour le recyclage des boîtes bleues en Ontario.
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