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

[dotr]

What is it with bee-keeping? How odd that this just popped up in newsfeed ( and lives in EastEnd Montreal)!

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2012/04/25/19678116.html
"MONTREAL - Jewish groups are renewing calls for former Quebec beekeeper Vladimir Katriuk to be deported as they claim new evidence links him to the massacre of men, women and children in the Second World War"

 

[dotr]

Bumping for Sharron Prior and wondering if someone was watching and feeling angry and jealous of a happy family at Eastertime,with a visiting Priest and pretty Sharron preening in the mirror before meeting up with friends at Marinas?

 

[Richard]

Dennis Melvin Howe...


I wonder if this guy might have been the person who abducted and murdered Sharron Prior:

Dennis Melvyn Howe was the son of a convicted sex offender, born in Canada about 1941.

Howe's criminal career started as a teenager with convictions for break-ins, robberies, rape, and abduction.

He had spent half of his adult years in prison. After being parolled, he disappeared in his birth place of Saskatchewan.

Howe was 5 feet, nine inches tall and weighed about 165 pounds. He had a tanned, leathery complexion and brown eyes. His thinning brown hair has probably turned grey by now. He has a wrinkled forehead, a small gap between his front teeth, a partial upper denture, a hairy chest and arms, squarred shoulders, and a cleft chin with a scar on it.

He is left-handed, known to wear a mustache, and has crooked little fingers.

Howe drank Molson's beer and chain-smoked Players plain cigarettes. He was a loud mouth who called everyone and everything a "turkey". At other times he transformed himself into a withdrawn loner. He is known as a supreme con-man and quick-change artist. He is good at conconcting stories and covering his tracks.

Howe would be about 71 years old now. When not in prison, he worked as a stock clerk, cook, roofer, janitor, millwright, electrician, carpenter, and metal worker.


Dennis Melvin Howe: Canada's Most Wanted - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

LINK:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14192&highlight=melvin+canada+Howe

 

[dotr]

Canada's Most Wanted Child-Abusers - YouTube

 

[dotr]

Dennis Melvin Howe...


I wonder if this guy might have been the person who abducted and murdered Sharron Prior:

Dennis Melvyn Howe was the son of a convicted sex offender, born in Canada about 1941.

Howe's criminal career started as a teenager with convictions for break-ins, robberies, rape, and abduction.

He had spent half of his adult years in prison. After being parolled, he disappeared in his birth place of Saskatchewan.

Howe was 5 feet, nine inches tall and weighed about 165 pounds. He had a tanned, leathery complexion and brown eyes. His thinning brown hair has probably turned grey by now. He has a wrinkled forehead, a small gap between his front teeth, a partial upper denture, a hairy chest and arms, squarred shoulders, and a cleft chin with a scar on it.

He is left-handed, known to wear a mustache, and has crooked little fingers.

Howe drank Molson's beer and chain-smoked Players plain cigarettes. He was a loud mouth who called everyone and everything a "turkey". At other times he transformed himself into a withdrawn loner. He is known as a supreme con-man and quick-change artist. He is good at conconcting stories and covering his tracks.

Howe would be about 71 years old now. When not in prison, he worked as a stock clerk, cook, roofer, janitor, millwright, electrician, carpenter, and metal worker.


Dennis Melvin Howe: Canada's Most Wanted - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

LINK:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14192&highlight=melvin+canada+Howe

New article is posted on DMH thread, also thinking that picking a lock as was seemingly done in Sharron's case, would not be difficult for H.

 

[scriptgirl]

I don't think so. I think on this thread, the cops figured Sharon's killer was 6 ft. Howe was 5'9

 

[eman77]

I've been reading and thinking about this case for a week or so and this is what I have to add.

The first thing that struck me was the fact that almost immediately after failing on an abduction, the suspect goes out and finds another girl (and I think reasonable people can agree that this was 99% chance the same guy). Someone linked to a criminal profiler who said the same thing, but a rookie abductor does not go ahead and immediately try to kidnap somebody else after failure. Ted Bundy, for example, knew it was a numbers game and would continually try to talk to girls after one of them rejected him. This was a seasoned abductor who was not afraid of failure, and did not get emotionally knocked despite almost getting caught.

Which leads to my next point. He must have been from out of town. Even after almost getting caught, and actually being seen, he doesn't go into hiding but actually kidnaps another person. The fact that the suspect attempted another kidnapping tells us a great deal about his character, personality, and experience.

Now why did he feel the need to immediately go after another girl? Why there? Why now? I believe it is because he was in town to abduct. He crossed the day on his calendar to kidnap and rape and possibly kill. He may have even had a place to drop off the body (which goes in line with the familiar place theory). This may have been the way he does business. Drive around the country, find off the road locations to drop off a body, and then go abduct. He had a deadline. That was the day he was abducting, he would not get another chance for a while, and if he wanted to do it, he had to do it NOW.

Next question, where was Sharron raped and kept for 3 days before she died? She was kidnapped Saturday and found on Tuesday. Coroner says that she died closer to Tuesday than Saturday meaning she had to have been kept alive somewhere where she could not escape and could not alert passerbys. Even if you are hogtied in a car, you could move around and lift your body enough for passerbys to notice there is something strange going on in the backseat. My theory is that this suspect had a VAN. This is a point which I will get to later.

Now what kind of guy drives around the country looking for girls to abduct? Where does he get the money for gas or food or whatever? What jobs require traveling? The only point in reading about this case where I got true, honest to god goosebumps and a blood-curling feeling in my gut is when I read Woodland's post connecting the case to the other beekeeping alcove murder. "Follow the bees and you will find the killer", I thought. This could be the case. This could be a guy who delivers to beekeepers across Canada and makes notes on solid places to dump a body and then a year or two later comes back in town and looks for a victim. Maybe he built fences? Regardless, I think he delivered items of some kind, thus the need for a van.

Perhaps the name of our suspect is in the accounts payable of both beekeeping owners? Something to think about.

Now why do I think it is a van? It makes sense. We know from the attempted abduction that this is a guy who just came up to girls without speaking and just grabbed them. How far could he have realistically carried them before passerbys would see or hear? He had to throw them in a vehicle that was parked nearby. Regardless this is still a brazen act. In a van there is a lot of room to rape and hold a person without worrying that they will be found if they are tied and gagged (which we have evidence of).

Another reason I believe it is a van is because of the lack of footprints at the dump off site. There is one footprint by the lock and fence, but none around the actual body. How could a person in a sedan possibly have managed to get a 110-130 pound body out of the car without stepping outside? Even if the ground is frozen, his 200lb body along with the extra weight he is holding in his hands (her body) would put over 300lbs of pressure on the ground. How could there not be footprints? How did he manage to get her body out of that car without getting out of the car.

He had a van with backdoors. He simply reversed into the alcove, jumped in the back, opened the doors and dumped her body out the back without stepping outside. Then he realized her clothes were still in the car and he just aimlessly threw it out back. I believe the men's shirt he left on the site, he threw out on accident with the rest of her clothes. Then he closed the doors, went back to the front, and drove off, on to the next victim.

This is of course assuming that she had been with him for 3 days, and he did not dump her on Saturday and she laid there for 3 days before dying, with little movement. I think this is an unlikely scenario but something that should not be thrown out.

Summary: This was a serial rapist and murderer. He had done this before and knowing he got away, almost certainly did it again. He was from out of town and likely owned a van. He worked in a service or delivery business of some kind which afforded him the opportunity to own the van and drive around the country with it. Sharron was likely raped, beaten, and kept hostage in the van for up to 3 days. She was then dropped off in a likely predetermined location which the killer may have known about from prior work assignments. It may not necessarily have been the beekeeper he worked with, but with somebody who owned land nearby.

Research which may help narrow down the suspects: The difficulty for finding the suspect with the profile I presented is that our geographical target covers almost all of Canada. I would search between 1972-1981 for a suspicious delivery/service van spotted near abductions/rapes/murders of young teenage girls across Canada. Maybe the name of the company on the truck was noted. This would require gigantic research effort but may be worth it since there is not much else to go on.

Everything I presented above is based on a few days of research, hunches, and analysis of evidence. Please take it for what it is.

 

[eman77]

After some thinking, I began to wonder. If he was from out of town, why did he stay in town for 3 days? Where did he go eat? Where did he sleep? Did he really sleep in the back of the van with her while she was tied up? Would he leave her there by herself? Surely somebody would have stepped forward if there was a stranger in town for the exact few days Sharron was missing.

Is it possible he thought he killed her and dropped her off the same night but she managed to survive for 3 days despite hardly moving? Maybe he had a motel/hotel 20 or so miles away where he was staying. Maybe he had a secret location in another town then drove back to drop the body in order to mislead police.

Some more research to do: Search hotel and motel records of everywhere in a 50 mile radius for those 3 days. Maybe the hotel kept track of license plate numbers. Very tough to do, I'm sure. But could lead us somewhere.

 

[dotr]

I've been reading and thinking about this case for a week or so and this is what I have to add.

The first thing that struck me was the fact that almost immediately after failing on an abduction, the suspect goes out and finds another girl (and I think reasonable people can agree that this was 99% chance the same guy). Someone linked to a criminal profiler who said the same thing, but a rookie abductor does not go ahead and immediately try to kidnap somebody else after failure. Ted Bundy, for example, knew it was a numbers game and would continually try to talk to girls after one of them rejected him. This was a seasoned abductor who was not afraid of failure, and did not get emotionally knocked despite almost getting caught.

Which leads to my next point. He must have been from out of town. Even after almost getting caught, and actually being seen, he doesn't go into hiding but actually kidnaps another person. The fact that the suspect attempted another kidnapping tells us a great deal about his character, personality, and experience.

Now why did he feel the need to immediately go after another girl? Why there? Why now? I believe it is because he was in town to abduct. He crossed the day on his calendar to kidnap and rape and possibly kill. He may have even had a place to drop off the body (which goes in line with the familiar place theory). This may have been the way he does business. Drive around the country, find off the road locations to drop off a body, and then go abduct. He had a deadline. That was the day he was abducting, he would not get another chance for a while, and if he wanted to do it, he had to do it NOW.

Next question, where was Sharron raped and kept for 3 days before she died? She was kidnapped Saturday and found on Tuesday. Coroner says that she died closer to Tuesday than Saturday meaning she had to have been kept alive somewhere where she could not escape and could not alert passerbys. Even if you are hogtied in a car, you could move around and lift your body enough for passerbys to notice there is something strange going on in the backseat. My theory is that this suspect had a VAN. This is a point which I will get to later.

Now what kind of guy drives around the country looking for girls to abduct? Where does he get the money for gas or food or whatever? What jobs require traveling? The only point in reading about this case where I got true, honest to god goosebumps and a blood-curling feeling in my gut is when I read Woodland's post connecting the case to the other beekeeping alcove murder. "Follow the bees and you will find the killer", I thought. This could be the case. This could be a guy who delivers to beekeepers across Canada and makes notes on solid places to dump a body and then a year or two later comes back in town and looks for a victim. Maybe he built fences? Regardless, I think he delivered items of some kind, thus the need for a van.

Perhaps the name of our suspect is in the accounts payable of both beekeeping owners? Something to think about.

Now why do I think it is a van? It makes sense. We know from the attempted abduction that this is a guy who just came up to girls without speaking and just grabbed them. How far could he have realistically carried them before passerbys would see or hear? He had to throw them in a vehicle that was parked nearby. Regardless this is still a brazen act. In a van there is a lot of room to rape and hold a person without worrying that they will be found if they are tied and gagged (which we have evidence of).

Another reason I believe it is a van is because of the lack of footprints at the dump off site. There is one footprint by the lock and fence, but none around the actual body. How could a person in a sedan possibly have managed to get a 110-130 pound body out of the car without stepping outside? Even if the ground is frozen, his 200lb body along with the extra weight he is holding in his hands (her body) would put over 300lbs of pressure on the ground. How could there not be footprints? How did he manage to get her body out of that car without getting out of the car.

He had a van with backdoors. He simply reversed into the alcove, jumped in the back, opened the doors and dumped her body out the back without stepping outside. Then he realized her clothes were still in the car and he just aimlessly threw it out back. I believe the men's shirt he left on the site, he threw out on accident with the rest of her clothes. Then he closed the doors, went back to the front, and drove off, on to the next victim.

This is of course assuming that she had been with him for 3 days, and he did not dump her on Saturday and she laid there for 3 days before dying, with little movement. I think this is an unlikely scenario but something that should not be thrown out.

Summary: This was a serial rapist and murderer. He had done this before and knowing he got away, almost certainly did it again. He was from out of town and likely owned a van. He worked in a service or delivery business of some kind which afforded him the opportunity to own the van and drive around the country with it. Sharron was likely raped, beaten, and kept hostage in the van for up to 3 days. She was then dropped off in a likely predetermined location which the killer may have known about from prior work assignments. It may not necessarily have been the beekeeper he worked with, but with somebody who owned land nearby.

Research which may help narrow down the suspects: The difficulty for finding the suspect with the profile I presented is that our geographical target covers almost all of Canada. I would search between 1972-1981 for a suspicious delivery/service van spotted near abductions/rapes/murders of young teenage girls across Canada. Maybe the name of the company on the truck was noted. This would require gigantic research effort but may be worth it since there is not much else to go on.

Everything I presented above is based on a few days of research, hunches, and analysis of evidence. Please take it for what it is.

Welcome to WS , and all the "food for thought"!Thinking since it was Easter weekend, maybe perp was visiting friends or family in Montreal, or had time off work or extra food deliveries to make..

 

[scriptgirl]

My feeling is that this guy was a local or native to the surrounding area. This was a very tough working class area-people who saw the guy when he tried to take his 1st victim didn't note his clothes, etc as being upper class or out of place for such an area. Also, he hadn't a uniform or work clothes on.

I think he was native or someone he knew was because he knew about the site where he dumped Sharon and I think he had a place nearby where he kept her.

 

[eman77]

Welcome to WS , and all the "food for thought"!Thinking since it was Easter weekend, maybe perp was visiting friends or family in Montreal, or had time off work or extra food deliveries to make..

My gut is that he was on vacation. Had a few days off with the company van to do a rape. The fact that she died not too long after they found her really throws a wrench in things.

I honestly believe that web sleuths will never truly be able to solve crimes unless they get access to ALL the evidence and past witness reports and tips. Police departments do not have unlimited time and resources to solve cold cases, but online detectives/retired people/students, they have all the time in the world. I can't help but think how many cold cases would be solved if there was a time period (say 25 years) until they released all the evidence so people can truly "step forward" and help the case. It is a true injustice.

 

[Woodland]

Beautiful thought eman77 on releasing more info to online sleuthers who have the time and dedication to solve crimes. You are correct that LE is limited with time and resources.

I would like to think you have started something with that statement!

 

[dotr]

It's where DS was found that has most the similarities to SP - wooded alcove (that has had a gate for many years) where beehives were kept at the time. In August, when DS went missing, it is impossible to see the area where she was found - you would have to know it's there. Seemed so similar 3 years and 5 months after SP.

D. Silverman..
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=181164&page=5

 

[dotr]

Do all offenders get DNA tested? Could it be possible that someone in this group knows something? Thinking now of D.Silverman and private school she once attended...
http://whosyourneighbour.ca/id22.html

 

[Woodland]

Upon conviction, many offenders are now ordered to submit a DNA sample to the national database. It does not have to be a crime involving assault - a fraud conviction for example could result in an order to submit a DNA sample. Where's there's smoke .....

 

[dotr]

Upon conviction, many offenders are now ordered to submit a DNA sample to the national database. It does not have to be a crime involving assault - a fraud conviction for example could result in an order to submit a DNA sample. Where's there's smoke .....

So, does that mean if they have the resources,all DNA collected could be compared and show who is responsible for some of these brutal crimes?

 

[Woodland]

All convictions resulting in a DNA order are compared to crime scenes in the database. The purpose of the order is to see if the person is responsible for other crimes or nab them for any future crimes.

 

[dotr]

Could Dennis MH's DNA be used to compare to other unsolved crimes, including in the States and other places he may have been? ...Wondering if there is any chance that he might have been an accomplice in Sharron's murder?

 

[Woodland]

I don't know the facts of this case well enough to know if LE is certain they have DNA for DMH.

If DNA was collected at the time, it also had to be well preserved until 1997 in order to have a profile that is compatible with Canada's database and all other databases. That's the way the technology evolved.

When a body was exhumed a number of years ago to see if it was Howe, was DNA the deciding factor it wasn't him? Or physical attributes or teeth? DNA compared to bio family members?

That would help answer some of the DNA questions. Cheers!

 

[scriptgirl]

I thought Sharron was dead when they found her