CANADA Canada - Sharron Prior, 16, Point St Charles QC, 29 Mar 1975

[Alta]

Sharron Prior was 16 years old when she left her Point St. Charles,Quebec home on March 29/1975, off to meet her boyfriend and friends at a local restaurant,only five blocks from her home.She never made it.Her body was found 3 days later in a field.Cause of death was asphyxiation caused by blood in her lungs.Police believe this happened when her attacker crushed his knee into her chest.She had been raped and her autopsy showed she had several bruises on her face,two fractures on her jaw,on both sides of her mouth.A broken nose and a hole in one cheek,when a tooth come loose during her struggle.

Police believe Sharron had been kept alive for a time and disposed of in the field, in Lonqueuil still alive.When found Sharron was wearing her sweater,shoes & socks and a three quarter length brown suede jacket.Her jeans and panties were found about 6 feet away from her body.

Also found near Sharron's body were tire tracks,a shoe print and a mans 3/4 arm length shirt,collar size was 17.The impression from the shoe print makes the man about 6' tall weighing about 200 lbs.

The police believe the killer knew the area well.The field where he dumped her had a padlock which was locked.Only two people had the key,both were questioned by police but not suspected.The question has always been how did the person unlock the gate,the lock was left hanging on the gate afterwards.

The same evening of March 29th within a fifteen minute time span when Sharron left her house another woman was attacked,in the same area where Sharron was heading.Her attacker tried to drag her away,but was saved when some children heard the commotion and came running to help.He was scared off by the kids and ran away.He was described as being about 29 years old,6'1,200 lbs with blue eyes and a squared off cut moustache.The man was never caught.

The description of this man is very similar to what police believe the man who dumped Sharron's body is.It is coincidental this man tried to grab another woman around the same time, in the same area as Sharron was walking that night.In 2004 police took DNA from a garage in the area,following a new lead.Apparently people lived above the garage,swabs were taken of the walls and floors.A man who had lived in this garage at the time was known to the Prior family.However the police were not able to match up any of the DNA to Sharron's case.

The family has set up a website for Sharron,it has some great newspaper articles and pictures of Sharron.

http://www.sharronprior.com/

 

[Alta]

Doreen & Moreen are Sharron's twin sisters,they would like anyones ideas on this case.The family has lived with this pain for a long time and are hoping somehow to bring it to a close.If anyone can push us in a direction that may help it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Richard]

Doreen & Moreen are Sharron's twin sisters,they would like anyones ideas on this case.The family has lived with this pain for a long time and are hoping somehow to bring it to a close.If anyone can push us in a direction that may help it would be greatly appreciated.

I wonder if there might have been any connection between these attacks and the abductions of several girls in the Maryland and Pennsylvania area between March and August 1975?

See the featured case threads on Sheila and Katherine Lyon who disappeared from Wheaton, MD on 25 March 1975.

 

[Alta]

I will do that thank you Richard.

 

[shwa]

http://tinyurl.com/2m4fos

It'S been 33yrs. for this cold case. 33yrs this weekend.

 

[ohwell1971]

Just a few thoughts here:

Were locksmiths in the area ever looked into? That would have been my first thought, since only 2 people had a key. Locksmiths have master keys. Or ask the owners if they had ever lost a key or if they ever had other employees/relatives that watched the place when they went out of town?

Did they ever find out what kind of car left the tire marks? Or what kind of shoes made the footprints?

 

[gaia227]

Bumping.

True Crime Diary did a piece about Sharron about a year ago.
http://www.truecrimediary.com/index.cfm?page=cases&id=49

I can't even begin to imagine what the last hours of her life were like. This type of killer does not just strike once and stop. I feel sure he had killed before and killed again.

 

[Richard]

It would appear to me that this crime was one of opportunity for the perpetrator.

It would have been hard for him to have forseen Sharron's plans and route of travel that day. And the earlier aborted attempt to abduct another woman would indicate that she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when this maggot drove by.

He was likely a local or someone with knowledge of the local area. The gate with the lock hanging on it un-locked could have simply been left un-locked by mistake by someone with a key, or possibly he had a key that worked on it.

This crime seems to be rather cold-blooded and intentional and committed by someone who was rather disorganized. Evidence of such being the physical evidence left behind, the dumping of her body and leaving the lock on the gate afterwards. Also his messed up efforts to abduct the other woman and his immediate attempt to abduct another.

He has probably been caught and convicted of other crimes due to his innept and disfunctional habits. The key to finding him would be to examine other similar crimes (before and after this case) in the area to look for similar patterns.

 

[Richard]

Bumping case up. In a few months the case will be 35 years old.

 

[Angels_Not_Forgotten]

bumping

 

[gaia227]

Thanks for bumping up some of these cold cases Angel!

Sharron's murder was very brutal and just awful. The fact she was most likely kept alive for some time and tortured like she was is just haunting.

I think her family did an awesome job with their website. It can be easy to feel a little diconnected to someone who has been gone for over 30 years but they did a great job of making Sharron come alive and leaving the reader feeling like they knew her. Telling it from the 1st person really brought Sharron to life.

This is their blog which you can get too from their website. It is nice to see it is updated regularly. The newest entry is about the newest DNA advance using the Y Chromosome. I watched a show about this just last night. It is pretty interested and it appears this could become a very pertinent tool for LE.
http://www.sharronprior.blogspot.com/

 

[Angels_Not_Forgotten]

Thanks for bumping up some of these cold cases Angel!

Sharron's murder was very brutal and just awful. The fact she was most likely kept alive for some time and tortured like she was is just haunting.

I think her family did an awesome job with their website. It can be easy to feel a little diconnected to someone who has been gone for over 30 years but they did a great job of making Sharron come alive and leaving the reader feeling like they knew her. Telling it from the 1st person really brought Sharron to life.

This is their blog which you can get too from their website. It is nice to see it is updated regularly. The newest entry is about the newest DNA advance using the Y Chromosome. I watched a show about this just last night. It is pretty interested and it appears this could become a very pertinent tool for LE.
http://www.sharronprior.blogspot.com/

Yes, the case chills me to my bones so sad! THanks for the website link!

 

[Richard]

Thirty five years have passed since Sharron's brutal murder. Has anyone seen any recent articles about her?

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

Thirty five years have passed since Sharron's brutal murder. Has anyone seen any recent articles about her?

http://www.sharronprior.com/art8.html
http://www.sharronprior.com/art9.html
http://www.sharronprior.com/art10.html


...The Latest articles i have found so far, are the 3 above, the mother posted I believe from 2004.

Since they retrieved a good tire impression from the crime scene. I wonder if that means they made a plastic copy of it?.....I believe in 75 they could pour that liquid into the tire impression and make a casting of it?
If they did, i wonder if they took it to the local places that sold tires and compared the tread with other tires to determine whom made it, which brand it was? It would have been easy i assume to determine the brand name of the tire, and whom around there sold those, after id3entify the tire from matching the tread from the casting. They could have even perhaps Identified the vehicle those type of tires would have been put on/HAD been put on!
And then check to see whom locally had that type of vehicle, and do a comparisons of there tires, with the plastic casting?
But then again, perhaps they did that early on in the investigation. If LE was here to answer, i would ask that question anyway. Even if to only get a yes we did that answer.
But i got a feeling they didn't.

No official LE documents anywhere i found so far, so perhaps sometime soon, they will release some visual aids from the
investigation.
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[dotr]

I can find blogs, but so far no news about this case, I will try looking again. Bumping for Sharron Prior!

 

[rghan]

In reading Sharron Prior's website, I was suprised to find no mention of a possible composite sketch in the article that talked about the possible connection to the previous attempted abduction in the area shortly before Sharron is reported to have left her home. The victim was able to give a fairly detailed physical description of her attacker. Even though he attacked her from behind, it stated he did pass her walking the opposite direction just shortly before he came back up behind her.

http://www.sharronprior.com/art4.html

I know composites can be a long shot, but I would think one would at least be attempted? Maybe I just have not located an article that shows a composite.

I am also surpised I am not finding a more detailed reference to the tires. I understand certain information being withheld for a "control question" type scenario, but the only reference I found was they were new radial tires.

http://www.sharronprior.com/art7.html

Even if they could not get a good cast in the snow, I would think once the activity on the case began to slow, the size of the tires may give some indication as at least a body style of the vehicle they are looking for (i.e. passenger car, truck, etc). Sometimes it takes only one small thing to jog someone's memory, especially if they live locally.

 

[dotr]

Bumping for Sharron Prior, because the thought that the creep who did this to her might be out there hurting others is horrifying.

 

[dotr]

I wish there was a quick way to look over all the details again, but if I understand correctly, there might be a suspect with blue eyes and dark hair who may or may not have had an accomplice.Is there anyone else that might be a suspect, could that person have moved from Montreal and is there DNA of the perp/s?

 

[dotr]

I cannot copy and paste the news from the blog site. I wish someone would write a new article about this case seeing how this March it will be about 37 years cold?

 

[dotr]

Reposting from CBC 1975 video archives...

http://archives.cbc.ca/society/crime_justice/clips/17222/
Sharron Prior, Montreal (1975)

Broadcast Date: July 28, 2004
She was headed to a neighbourhood hangout for a soft drink with some friends. But 16-year-old Sharron Prior never turned up that Saturday in March 1976, and three days later her body was found, raped and beaten, in a field far from home. Almost 30 years later, in 2004, Montreal police scour a garage using a new method of detecting blood to seek new clues in the case. In this short clip from CBC Montreal, the murdered girl's mother says she still holds out hope that Sharron's killer will be found."
"