The Toronto Police Service (TPS) has announced the arrest of a suspect in connection with two high-profile cold case homicides that took place in the city nearly 40 years ago.
45-year-old Susan Tice and 22-year-old Erin Gilmour were murdered four months apart in 1983, and police announced Monday they had arrested and charged a 61-year-old man from Moosonee, Ontario.
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Joseph George Sutherland was taken into custody on Friday, November 25, according to a press release, and has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Tice and Gilmour were not known to each other but were both sexually assaulted and stabbed "numerous" times.
Back in 2000, police obtained DNA from both crime scenes and determined the murders were linked.
"The only way that this was solved was the advances in science," said homicide Det. Steve Smith in a news conference, who admitted this case was the most difficult of his career. "We were able to use investigative genetic genealogy to narrow down a suspect family, and from there, we were able to narrow down a suspect who is obviously under arrest today."
Police said investigators began a genetic genealogy investigation in 2019, which ultimately led to Sutherland's arrest. He had never been a suspect or person of interest in this investigation.
Joseph George Sutherland circa 1980s. Right: Joseph George Sutherland, 61. Toronto Police Service
"This is a day that I, and we, have been waiting almost an entire lifetime for," said Sean McCowan, the brother of Gilmour. "In a sense, there's a real relief that someone's been arrested. Yet, it also brings back so many memories of Erin and her brutal, senseless murder."
"It finally puts a name and a face to someone who, for all of us, has been a ghost," McCowan said.
Police said with Sutherland now in custody in Toronto, investigators will pour through his history in an attempt to determine whether or not he is connected to any other crimes.
Sutherland is due in court on December 9.