A cold case that baffled Toronto-area police for nearly half a century has been cracked. Here’s how they did it: CP24

For nearly 45 years, the identity of human remains found along a rural road north of Toronto remained a mystery.

It was on July 16, 1980, when a Markham, Ont. The resident made the discovery near a wooded area on the Eleventh Concession, between 14th Avenue and Steeles Avenue. Unbeknownst to them, the remains were owned by William Joseph Pennella convict who had escaped from a Kingston prison a month earlier.

York Regional Police previously announced that investigators identified the remains in 2023 after the case went cold for decades. They said investigative genealogy (IGG) was the key to linking the body to Pennell after investigators positively identified his relatives.

But how did they do that? CTV News Toronto spoke with Othram, a Texas-based forensics firm that helped police make the identification, to learn more about the process.

Collect evidence

Pennell’s remains were first exhumed in 2007 by cold case investigators in an effort to create a facial reconstruction and obtain DNA, police said. A year later, a DNA profile was developed and uploaded to the national DNA database, but there were no matches.

Investigators then turned to IGG in 2021 and contacted Othram in The Woodlands, Texas, in 2022 for assistance with the case.

“Othram has received skeletal material, and the first thing we need to do is extract DNA from the bone. And so we did that,” the company’s chief of staff, Colby Lasyone, told CTV News Toronto in an interview earlier this week.

Lasyone said the team then worked to develop a new DNA profile that York Regional Police used to upload into a database and compare it with profiles on certain family tree websites before ultimately finding a match.

“If you took a genealogy test from a consumer genealogy testing company, you actually have to upload your DNA profile into a database. There are specific databases where law enforcement can actually search these databases. And so, in order to do forensic genetic genealogy in a case, we can only compare against databases where individuals have specifically given permission for law enforcement to do so,” Lasyone explains.

This isn’t the first time Othram has been involved in solving a cold case in the Greater Toronto Area. In 2019the company assisted Toronto police in identifying Joseph George Sutherland as a suspect in the 1983 murders of Erin Gilmour, the daughter of a wealthy Toronto businessman, and Susan Tice, a mother of four. Both women were murdered in their homes and both cases went cold for almost forty years. Sutherland was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year.

“Genealogy was once a hobby, and then it was used to help locate adoptive families. And now, from a forensic perspective, this application of genealogy enables the identification of family members, ultimately helping to recover the names of individuals who have died without their identities known, or even those suspected of a crime.”

‘A big advantage for the police’

Chris Lewis, the former commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, said recent developments in genetic genealogy aimed at solving cold cases mark a turning point in the way these cases are investigated.

“Years ago, in the 80s and 90s, in the early days of DNA, you had to have a sample from a crime scene, and then of course a sample from a suspect to try to match them somehow, Lewis, who is CTV News’ public safety analyst, said in an interview. He was not involved in the identification of Pennell’s remains.

“But now you have the ability to identify people, unidentified human remains, etc. through this genetic approach and ultimately through a huge database that has been developed since then,” Lewis said, calling the investigative tool “a huge benefit to law enforcement.”

He said cold cases will likely still exist, especially in situations where no suspect or suspect DNA is identified at the scene. But in cases where police can establish a forensic link to a person who was at the scene other than the victim, or where human remains have not been identified, there is a major advantage for investigators.

“Police forces across Canada have been reviewing those old, so-called cold cases to see if the technology has advanced to the point where we can use it now… and many old, previously unsolved cases are being dealt with because of the science.”

Who was William Joseph Pennell?

Pennell had spent time in various correctional institutions for a variety of offenses and was arrested on June 30, 1979, for armed robbery and attempted murder while on parole, police said in a news release issued earlier this month.

After being charged, Pennell was sent to the Collins Bay Institution in Kingston.

Police said Pennell confessed to his role in the crime and said at least two other people were involved. However, he refused to involve them as he believed his life was in danger.

Pennell was convicted of the robbery in April 1980. Two months later he escaped from prison. To date, no detailed information about the escape has been found.

Although the details of his escape remain unclear, police said Pennell told a friend he planned to flee to South America. Police believe this was Pennell’s last contact before his death.

Pennell’s cause of death has never been determined, but investigators believe foul play was involved.

The investigation into Pennell’s death is ongoing and police say they want to speak to more friends and acquaintances of the 26-year-old to understand what happened after his escape from prison in 1980.