Montreal teen's killer identified after 48 years using DNA evidence

The Longueuil police say they are now “100 per cent” certain that they have solved the mystery of who killed Sharron Prior, the teenager who was found dead on the South Shore days after she disappeared in Pointe-St-Charles.

Pierre Duquette, Chief inspector for criminal investigations for the Longueuil police, made the announcement Tuesday afternoon at a crowded news conference attended by members of Sharron’s family.

“We are all still grieving the loss of a daughter and a sister, who was savagely murdered at age 16 on March 29, 1975,” Sharron’s sister, Doreen Prior, told reporters.

“Life has not been easy on us since then, but Sharron has given us strength for the past 47 years.”

Explaining the lengthy investigation, Duquette went over a long chronology of events that happened since 1975.

The chronology ended recently, after the Longueuil police petitioned a court in West Virginia and were granted permission to exhume the remains of Franklin Romine, a man who died in Verdun seven years after he killed Sharron.

Sharron Prior, 16, was slain in 1975 and her murder remained unsolved until today. Photo by Photo provided by family

Duquette said the remains provided evidence that proved without a doubt that Romine’s DNA was on a blue t-shirt used to tie Sharron’s hands behind her back and on two items of her clothing.

Duquette said it was continued advancements in DNA and that helped solved the crime.

For many years, a complete DNA profile could not be lifted from the clothing. Advancements in recent years changed that and a complete male profile was found on the three items.

They all matched and another relatively recent development, the increasing popularity of people researching their ancestry, led specialists to inform the Longueuil police that the person they were looking for had the family name Romine.

Duquette said detective Éric Racicot used that information and searched tirelessly through databases connected to Prior, the area where she was kidnapped and where she was found.

That research revealed things like how Romine, who died in 1982, lived near Sharron at one point. He also owned a vehicle that used a type of tire that matched a tire print found at the crime scene.

On March 29, 1975, Prior was supposed to meet with friends at a restaurant on Wellington St. in Pointe-St-Charles, but she never showed up. Her body was found in Longueuil on April 1 that year.

A pathologist concluded she had been raped, beaten repeatedly, especially in the face, and suffocated on her own blood.

The homicide remained unsolved for decades.

Moreen Prior, left, wipes away tears while standing next to her twin sister Doreen Prior, while speaking to the media after Longueuil police solved the 1975 murder of Sharron Prior, on Tuesday May 23, 2023. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf /Montreal Gazette

Attending Tuesday’s news conference, Sharron’s mother, Yvonne Prior, declined to make a comment. Sharron’s two sisters thanked the many people who tried to help find the killer since 1975.

Maureen Prior singled out several people and specifically Racicot, the detective who pushed the case to its end.

“You pushed new technology to its boundaries.” Maureen Prior said. “Saying thank you to you hardly seems like enough, but that is all we have today.”

The sisters also thanked John Allore, whose sister Theresa was killed in the Eastern Townships under similar circumstances.

Allore hosted a podcast and wrote two books about his search for answers and supported other families who shared the same painful experience of losing a loved one and not knowing who was responsible.

Allore died recently in a biking accident near his home in the U.S.

“John once said to our family that he hoped to see just one of the Quebec cold cases solved,” Maureen Prior said. “Well guess what John. We did it. We know that you and Theresa will be smiling.”

While he went over the chronology, Duquette said someone tried to abduct a 23-year-old woman on Wellington St. on the same day Sharron disappeared. That woman told the Montreal police that the man who tried to kidnap her was a white anglophone with physical characteristics similar to Romine.

“The Longueuil police continued to investigate (Sharron’s death) with rigour and perseverance,” Duquette said adding investigators received more than 130 tips on potential suspects over the years.

A total of 122 “subjects of interest” were investigated.

“Out of that number, 40 were excluded by their DNA or through wiretaps,” Duquette said. “Another 60 were excluded for different reasons, be it that they were incarcerated (when Sharron was killed) or simply because the information was unfounded.”

Four search warrants were executed in Pointe-St-Charles in 1975, but they produced nothing of value to the investigation.

“Between April 1975 and April 1976, 31 people were detained and interrogated by investigators, with no results,” Duquette said.

In 2003, a DNA profile was lifted from the blue t-shirt used to tie Prior’s hands.

“But the quantity of DNA was insufficient for that (time) in order to make a comparison,” Duquette said. “Things evolved with time.”

In 2004, the Longueuil police used wiretaps on a potential suspect and an address in Pointe-St-Charles was searched, but that path came up empty.

It was in 2015 that the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale in Montreal managed to lift a complete DNA profile from that blue t-shirt that could be compared to other DNA profiles. It was then that a match was made with DNA found on two items of Sharron’s clothing.

“At that moment, the was no concordance with other profiles in the Canadian (DNA) database,” Duquette said. “In 2017, on the suggestion from biologists with the laboratory, approaches were made with private laboratory in the United States concerning the possible expertise relative to ancestral researches of DNA.”

In 2022, Racicot sent the items of clothings to a laboratory again, hoping that new advancements would push the investigation along.

“It was the first time that the name Romine came up as a suspect. That name never came up before in our investigation. It was the first time we heard it,” Duquette said, adding Racicot used that information to search through a series of databases. “He looked through public databases, newspapers etc. and found a Franklin Romine who lived in Montreal the year Sharron Prior was killed.

“With the confirmation of the name Romine, in 2022 and 2023, Racicot did an exhaustive research and used different methods of investigation to corroborate the profile of the suspect.”

Duquette said Racicot learned that Romine lived on Décarie Blvd., just nine kilometres from Sharron, and that his physical description matched that of the man who tried to abduct the 23-year-old woman on Wellington St. The investigator also learned that Romine owned a dark red Rambler that used the same type of tires of a vehicle that left a tire print where Sharron’s body was found.

“He also lived in Longueuil and had a heavy criminal record in Canada and in the U.S.,” Duquette said. “He died in 1982 while living in Verdun, of an unknown cause of death, and he was buried in West Virginia.”

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Body exhumed in West Virginia in investigation of slain Montreal teen Sharron Prior cold-case murder: Longueuil police to give 'major' update Tuesday