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Cold cases: The search for justice never stops
On Sept. 27, 1970, Valerie Anastacia Drew was found dead in a wooded area that is now the present-day Compton Street apartment complexes. She’d been reported missing a day prior when a searcher found her at about 10:30 p.m., gagged by her own clothes and hit over the head with a large rock.
Drew was last seen alive two days earlier, when she left her Wiley Street home. She walked north with two teenage male friends, who then hitchhiked to Peterborough. Her family reported her missing the next day.
Former chief of Kingston Police Bill Hackett assisted Earl McCullough, who was the first lead investigator on the case. While Hackett retired in July 1995, he said this past Wednesday that the case has stuck with him.
“It was a terrible case,” Hackett admitted. “I still think that the perpetrator is still in that area. She was a smart young girl. Intelligent and well liked, and there’s been a lot of officers who put a lot of time into her case.
“I think the day will come that perhaps it will be solved.”
Hackett said the case has affected so many officers that he thinks any one of them would “go the extra mile” immediately should they receive any information.
“I’d love to see something come out of the woodwork for little Valerie Drew,” Hackett said. “I think it’s solvable. Just because of all the information that has been gathered, put together and investigated so far, it leads one to believe that it should be solved.”
On Sept. 27, 1970, Valerie Anastacia Drew was found dead in a wooded area that is now the present-day Compton Street apartment complexes. She’d been reported missing a day prior when a searcher found her at about 10:30 p.m., gagged by her own clothes and hit over the head with a large rock.
Drew was last seen alive two days earlier, when she left her Wiley Street home. She walked north with two teenage male friends, who then hitchhiked to Peterborough. Her family reported her missing the next day.
Former chief of Kingston Police Bill Hackett assisted Earl McCullough, who was the first lead investigator on the case. While Hackett retired in July 1995, he said this past Wednesday that the case has stuck with him.
“It was a terrible case,” Hackett admitted. “I still think that the perpetrator is still in that area. She was a smart young girl. Intelligent and well liked, and there’s been a lot of officers who put a lot of time into her case.
“I think the day will come that perhaps it will be solved.”
Hackett said the case has affected so many officers that he thinks any one of them would “go the extra mile” immediately should they receive any information.
“I’d love to see something come out of the woodwork for little Valerie Drew,” Hackett said. “I think it’s solvable. Just because of all the information that has been gathered, put together and investigated so far, it leads one to believe that it should be solved.”