P.E.I. Justice Minister says islanders deserve answers in cold case investigation
The provincial justice minister in P.E.I. says Islanders deserve answers after charges were withdrawn last week in a decades-old unsolved murder case.
Bloyce Thompson has ordered a review of the murder investigation into the 1988 death of teacher Byron Carr.
Thompson says the review will be launched as soon as possible to determine how Charlottetown police lost crucial evidence in the case, forcing Crown prosecutors to drop the charges.
Police charged Todd Joseph Gallant with first-degree murder and interfering with human remains in 2024 following an investigation into Carr’s death.
The allegations against Gallant were not tested in court.
Carr was 36 when he was strangled and stabbed in his Charlottetown home by someone who left a handwritten note on a wall that read, "I will kill again."
“This was a very public, very significant cold case that people had high hopes for,” Thompson said in an interview Wednesday. “And there's a lot of questions on what happened to the evidence … and where it went.”
Thompson has directed the Office of the Police Commissioner to appoint a third party to conduct the review.
Charlottetown police were not immediately available for comment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2026.
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