Identified! Canada - Casselman, Ont, 'Nation River Lady' WhtFem 239UFON, 25-50, May'75 *POI charged* - Jewell Parchman Langford

[landis]

Photo from Jewell and Atlas' wedding day included in a Facebook post by George A. Smith and Sons Funeral Home. From what I've seen, they married on April 5, 1953.

 

[djanga]

Denise Parchman Chung was young when her aunt went missing, but remembers her fondly.

“From everything that I can remember, she was just a very caring person. She loved to help the community. She was big in health and fitness. She and her then-husband owned several spas. She was just a very outgoing person and very happy in life. She loved to travel. I remember going to their house, and she would always take me shopping and let me get what I wanted. My dad (Jewell’s brother) helped them build their house, and to me back then, it was just a mansion for the times and Jackson.”

Langford owned the Jackson Health Club and Imperial Health Spa with then-husband Atlas Langford in the early 70s. According to her family, she and Atlas divorced in that same time period. Then, she traveled to Canada, never to be heard from again.

Canada’s ‘Nation River Lady’ identified as Jackson’s Jewell Parchman Langford - The Jackson Post

The subject of one of Canada's most famous cold case murders has finally been identified– 48 years after her body was discovered in the Nation River. A Florida man has now been charged in her murder. The “Nation River Lady” has been identified as Jewell Parchman Langford, a well-known business...

jacksonpost.news

 

[dotr]

OPP to provide update on investigation into human remains found in Nation River in 1975

Ontario Provincial Police will be providing “significant updates” this morning on the investigation into previously unidentified human remains that were discovered in Eastern Ontario in 1975.

www.cp24.com

rbbm
July 5, 2023
Ontario Provincial Police will be providing “significant updates” this morning on the investigation into previously unidentified human remains that were discovered in Eastern Ontario in 1975.
In a news release, the OPP said Det.-Insp. Daniel Nadeau, as well as Ontario’s chief coroner, Dr. Dirk Huyer, and a primary investigator will hold a news conference to discuss the resolution of the investigation, dubbed the “Nation River Lady” case.
The news conference is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.''

 

[DSCrime]

Here's the media news release from OPP official channel:

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I haven't watched it yet, but it is also featured on this article:

OPP to provide update on nearly 50-year-old Canadian cold case

 

[branmuffin]

Two more newspaper photos from the Jackson Sun, 1972 and 1969.

View attachment 432893View attachment 432895

The clay bust of Jewell really nailed her physical features when comparing it to the image of her in the fur coat.

 

[dotr]

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[DSCrime]

From official news release:

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Detective Constable (Retired) Janice Mulcock / OPP Russell County Crime Unit presented a family/victim history of Jewell Parchman Langford:

- when Jewell Langford left U.S. for Canada she promised to keep in touch w/ family
- her family & friends knew something was wrong when she didn't keep in touch, as she was described as being devoted to them
- her ex-husband rallied with her mother & family to search for her

 

[Vern]

So a woman is reported missing in Montreal in late April 1975, then a woman's remains are found a 1.5 hour drive west of Montreal in early May 1975, and no link was made for 47 years???? This is baffling. I've been following the Nation River Lady case for years. Police were fixated on a man's tie she was bound with (as in where it may have been purchased) as well as her "unique" dental work, which until recently, was believed could only have been done in Europe. Just a few years ago dental experts chimed in and said there was nothing remarkable about the dental work, and it was entirely consistent with dental work done in North America during the 1970s. It goes to show how red herrings can completely derail a case. If only they had tried to match her up with known missing women from that time and that region from the start. This could have been solved years ago, if not decades ago.

I am neither shocked nor surprised.

It was the 1970s. How many hundreds of times have we watched this play out on Websleuths over the years. He placed her in the Nation River exactly because it was a different province.

Communication between agencies sucked in the 1970s and we have 5 Canadian jurisdictions overlapping in this case.

Disappeared from Montreal, Quebec. Found in Casselman, Ontario. Then you've got Ottawa, Ontario (which has zero connection in this case) that is the city on the other end of the Montreal/Ottawa well travelled corridor that crosses over the Nation River.
1) SVPM - Service de police de la Ville de Montréal/City of Montreal Police
2) QPP - Sûreté du Québec/Quebec ProvincialPolice
3) OPS - Ottawa Police Services
4) OPP - Ontario Provincial Police
5) RCMP - Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Those are jsut the Canadian Police jurisdictional entities in "the Region she was found". We've also got the international border(s) with the USofA closer to Montreal than the Nation River 1.5 hours fm Montreal). It takes a mere 45 minutes to be in the USofA from Montreal.

I suspect her dental work was done in Montreal which was known (still is) for it's international flavour and availbility of services there.

 

[AddyFinch]

Toronto, Canada and Global Breaking News – CP24

Most recent News News business news stories and video from CP24

www.cp24.com

 

[AddyFinch]

Unsavoury topic, but can you imagine keeping her body at the Morgue for all these years? I'm still not clear why this news wasn't released when killer charged last year. Was it due to his age?

 

[landis]

Unsavoury topic, but can you imagine keeping her body at the Morgue for all these years? I'm still not clear why this news wasn't released when killer charged last year. Was it due to his age?

Family might've requested it. The authorities might've needed more time to finalize some legal stuff. There are a lot of possibilities. Also, idk whether they really kept her body in a morgue all this time or they cremated her and compared DNA from her relatives to the samples taken before cremation, but I've read that the family buried cremated remains.

 

[AddyFinch]

I read they returned her body to Tennessee last year, and family buried her where they had previously put a marker in her memory. The 417 is a divided hwy at the location her body was found, so car was going westbound when she was thrown over the bridge into river. That river flows towards the Ottawa river, but I don't know if LE said blood found on bridge was the east or westbound hwy. All in all, it's a short drive from Montreal. So long ago, great work by forensics!

 

[Springrain]

How sad. I'll have to catch up on this story. RIP Jewell.

 

[9glenn9]

Jewell "Lalla" Langford, second from the left - retrieved from CBS News

 

[AndrewM71]

Jewell Langford vivait avec Rodney Nichols à Montréal avant de disparaître en 1975

La Police provinciale de l’Ontario (PPO) affirme que Jewell Langford a habité en avril 1975 à Montréal avec Rodney Nichols, l’homme qui est aujourd’hui accusé de son meurtre.

ici.radio-canada.ca

Here is an updated article in French for those who can read it.

Very little is known about Nichols besides the fact that he was well known in the rugby community. I’ve seen two writers on Twitter asking if anyone knows anything about him. He could have left Montreal not long after - there was a huge Anglo exodus to (mostly) Toronto around that time and into the 80s.

 

[Betty P]

The detective said in the presentation that they will provide further information about the crime in the future. He did say that the victim and her killer were known to each other.

Her family and friends knew she was traveling to Montreal and expected to hear from her. It sounds as though there was little or no communication from her once she left.

 

[Betty P]

Toronto, Canada and Global Breaking News – CP24

Most recent News News business news stories and video from CP24

www.cp24.com

This article says she was murdered between April 22 and May 3 of 1975. It’s a rather short time span, as if she traveled there on a business trip or vacation.

 

[landis]

Jewell Langford vivait avec Rodney Nichols à Montréal avant de disparaître en 1975

La Police provinciale de l’Ontario (PPO) affirme que Jewell Langford a habité en avril 1975 à Montréal avec Rodney Nichols, l’homme qui est aujourd’hui accusé de son meurtre.

ici.radio-canada.ca

Here is an updated article in French for those who can read it.

Very little is known about Nichols besides the fact that he was well known in the rugby community. I’ve seen two writers on Twitter asking if anyone knows anything about him. He could have left Montreal not long after - there was a huge Anglo exodus to (mostly) Toronto around that time and into the 80s.

Just a quick tip for those who can't read French: if you have Google Chrome, make a right mouse click and choose the "Translate to English" option.

 

[dotr]

The accused also was associated with Westmount High, wondering if he attended school there, and if by small chance he went to L A. California?
Yes, slightly curious if he knew murdered Reet J. speculation, imo. rbbm

Murder of Reet Jurvetson - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Nation River Lady: Former Montrealer named as suspect in Ontario cold case

Rodney Nichols, who now lives in Florida, has been named as a suspect in death of Jewell Parchman Langford, a successful businesswoman from Tennessee.

montrealgazette.com

''Quebec court records indicate that Nichols lived in Côte-des-Neiges during the 1970s.

Nadeau said Langford and Nichols knew each other in 1975. He also said the cold case is believed to be the first in Ontario to be solved through forensic genealogy.''

''When Langford’s body was discovered, her wrists were tied with a man’s necktie, while two other neckties bound her ankles. One of the neckties, known as a “Canada” tie for its decorative Canada flags, was manufactured in Montreal and sold in stores in Quebec, eastern Ontario and Toronto.''

 

[Cedars]

I am neither shocked nor surprised.

It was the 1970s. How many hundreds of times have we watched this play out on Websleuths over the years. He placed her in the Nation River exactly because it was a different province.

Communication between agencies sucked in the 1970s and we have 5 Canadian jurisdictions overlapping in this case.

Disappeared from Montreal, Quebec. Found in Casselman, Ontario. Then you've got Ottawa, Ontario (which has zero connection in this case) that is the city on the other end of the Montreal/Ottawa well travelled corridor that crosses over the Nation River.
1) SVPM - Service de police de la Ville de Montréal/City of Montreal Police
2) QPP - Sûreté du Québec/Quebec ProvincialPolice
3) OPS - Ottawa Police Services
4) OPP - Ontario Provincial Police
5) RCMP - Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Those are jsut the Canadian Police jurisdictional entities in "the Region she was found". We've also got the international border(s) with the USofA closer to Montreal than the Nation River 1.5 hours fm Montreal). It takes a mere 45 minutes to be in the USofA from Montreal.

I suspect her dental work was done in Montreal which was known (still is) for it's international flavour and availbility of services there.

From the google translate of the French CBC article:

"the family of Jewell Langford informed the Police Department of the City of Montreal (SPVM) of [her] disappearance in 1975, says Daniel Nadeau.

Despite everything, no one at the SPVM [made] a connection at the time with the discovery in May of the bound body of Jewell Langford 150 kilometers west of Montreal, near Highway 417 in Casselman, Ontario.

Similarly, OPP investigators who sought to discover the identity of this murder victim never made a connection with the disappearance of Jewell Langford which was recorded a few weeks later in Montreal."

Jewell Langford vivait avec Rodney Nichols à Montréal avant de disparaître en 1975

La Police provinciale de l’Ontario (PPO) affirme que Jewell Langford a habité en avril 1975 à Montréal avec Rodney Nichols, l’homme qui est aujourd’hui accusé de son meurtre.

ici.radio-canada.ca

We don't know whether Montreal police tracked her to the apartment she shared with her killer. IMO, in those days, if an apparently respectable man told police his temporary girlfriend had left him and gone back to the US, he may well have been believed. Everyone knew about serial killers, but I wonder whether this now, all too common phenomenon of domestic murderers hiding the body, was as common as it is now. And, of course, the prejudice about a woman living with a man she wasn't married to, may have lingered.

Also, IMO, it's the jurisdiction where the body is found, that deals with it as a crime. A visitor who may have simply left, isn't classified as a crime from the police perspective, homicide division may have never been involved.

JMO