Canada- Susan Cadieux, 5,abducted outside St. Mary's School, sexually assaulted, died of exposure,@ CPR spur line, London, Ont., 6/1/56 *Sketch, DNA*

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Jan 11 2023 Rebecca Zandbergen

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/local-sleuths-hope-to-shed-new-light-on-1956-death-of-5-year-old-abducted-in-london-ont-1.6708712

''Susan Cadieux's body was found at 609 William St. in London, Ont., alongside the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) spur line on Jan. 6, 1956. (London Police Service)
WARNING: This article contains content about child sexual assault and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.''

''A group of amateur detectives in London, Ont., hopes their renewed interest and research into a 66-year-old cold case will shed new light on the death of a five-year-old girl.

Susan Cadieux was playing outside St. Mary's School at 345 Lyle St. on Jan. 6, 1956, with her two brothers and a friend when a man approached the group.

"A man came and abducted her," Bent Romnes said this week from a research room at the London Public Library's Central Branch, where he's been digging into the case. "He abducted her and left her at the railway tracks still alive. She died from exposure."

At the time, police released a sketch of the man, who was described as white, 30 to 40 years old, tall, thin and unshaven. He was wearing a light brown overcoat that was unbuttoned, unbuckled black galoshes and a dark Russian-style or army Melton hat with ear flaps.

"It's a case that touched all of London," he said. "The murder was so brutal."

"A post-mortem examination revealed that [Susan] had been sexually assaulted, and evidence was gathered from the crime scene and the post-mortem examination," said Det. Insp. Alex Krygsman of the London Police Service's Investigative Services Branch.''

"Evidence was submitted to the Centre of Forensic Sciences (CFS) and scientists from CFS were eventually able to develop a DNA profile," said Krygsman. The profile was uploaded to the National DNA Database as well as to DNA databanks in the U.S., but the DNA was never identified.

More than 20 years ago, police told CBC the late former air force sergeant Alexander Kalichuk was suspected in the death, but that never resulted in any charges.

"Despite efforts to solve the case, investigators were unable to bring it to a successful conclusion," said Krygsman.''

 

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Lengthy article.
By Peter Edwards Aug. 15, 2021

‘God help the man who did it’: Who was the gaunt stranger who took 5-year-old Susan Cadieux?

The abduction and murder of Susan Cadieux punctuated a frightening string of unsolved child sex assaults. Was it the world of a serial killer?

www.thestar.com

''Five-year-old Susan Cadieux was playing with her older brothers and a friend by St. Mary’s church in London, Ont., across the street from her family home when the stranger appeared.

The stranger walked up to the children in the comfortable, family-friendly neighbourhood on Friday, Jan. 6, 1956, and said he was supposed to meet with the church priest, W.T. O’Rourke.

The man added that he lived nearby and pointed a finger toward King Street as he spoke.

He then spoke privately with Susan.

When their chat was over, Susan told the other children that he was about to give her something.

It was at this time when one of the other kids fell on the ice and the others were distracted.

That’s when Susan and the stranger disappeared.''

At 10:08 a.m. the next morning, a father-son searcher team found Susan’s fully-clothed, lifeless body a little more than a kilometre and a half from her home.

She lay by a Canadian Pacific Railway spur line, 10 feet off the driveway of a construction company.

There were tiny footprints by her body, believed to have been hers.

Her hands and cheeks were frozen. News reports said tears had turned to ice on her face.

After an autopsy at Victoria Hospital, coroner Dr. Paul Sweeney said she had been dead less than three hours

“She definitely had not been out all night,” Sweeney said. “She could not have been there very long or her body would have been frozen.”

The coroner said her body showed “no sign of strangulation, of bullet wounds or any external injury.”

But Susan had been sexually assaulted.''

''Police said Susan’s big brothers provided an “excellent” description of him, which they used for a sketch that was released to the media.

He was between 35 and 40, tall and thin. He needed a shave.

He wore a tan or brown coat and galoshes with buckles and a dark “Russian-type” hat with earflaps.''

 

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2021 rbbm

Child Abducted, Raped, And Left To Die

Susan Cadieux’s body was found with tears frozen to her face.

medium.com

''Despite what the man had told the children, Father O’Rourke did not have an appointment with anyone that night. He theorized that the man was one of the many homeless people who came to the church for money.''

Shortly after 10 AM the next day, Susan’s body was found at a warehouse yard of the Ray James construction and farm supply company, less than 10 minutes away from where she had been abducted.

She was lying on her back with one of her arms thrown across a railway track. Her underclothing had been torn and she was missing a pair of blue jeans that she had been wearing under a snowsuit. Susan had been sexually assaulted and died from exposure. Notably, she had tears frozen to her face. It is estimated that she died less than three hours before being found.

During the previous year of 1955, 10 London girls had been sexually assaulted. Susan was the only fatal attack.''

''In 2000, authorities revealed they had a suspect. Alexander Kalichuk was a Royal Canadian Air Force Sergeant who had been stationed at bases around southwestern Ontario. He had a history of sexual offenses and died of alcoholism in 1975.

Kalichuk is also a person of interest in the 1959 rape and murder of 12-year-old Lynne Harper in Ontario. Notably, her 14-year-old schoolmate Steven Truscott was wrongly sentenced to death for the crime''

2000

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/murder-suspect-died-25-years-ago-1.234995

''The Fifth Estate says Alexander Kalichuk was overlooked as a suspect in that murder.

In last night's program, the CBC said the police now consider Kalichuk a suspect in the death of Susan Cadieux, a five-year-old girl from London who was sexually assaulted and then froze to death one night in January of 1956.

The police also say Kalichuk is being investigated again for another murder in which he was the original suspect. However, investigators have not released the name of the victim in that case.

The Fifth Estate reported that Sergeant Kalichuk had a history of sexual offences dating from 1950. He was stationed at bases in southwestern Ontario and he died in 1975.''

https://www.cbc.ca/news2/background/truscott/

Sgt. Alexander Edward Kalichuk.​