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COLD CASE: Who were victims Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour?

Susan Tice, left, and Erin Gilmour were both murdered by the same man in 1983, just months apart, cops say.
Susan Tice, left, and Erin Gilmour were both murdered by the same man in 1983, just months apart, cops say.

One was a high-flying career girl who came from big money, the other was a recently arrived divorcee who was a mother of four.

What connected the two women is they were both allegedly murdered by the same man.

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On Monday, Toronto Police cold case detectives announced that after 39 years, they arrested the alleged killer they believe is responsible for the two horrific homicides, separated by four kilometres and four terrible months in late 1983.

Who were the two known alleged victims of Joseph George Sutherland, 61, of Moosonee?

Susan Tice was a single 45-year-old social worker and mother of four who had only recently moved into her downtown Grace St. home from Calgary. When her brother couldn’t reach her, police became involved.

The beloved woman who worked with disadvantaged children was discovered dead in the ransacked premises on Aug. 17, 1983. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in her bed.

Four months later on Dec. 20, 1983, five days from Christmas, the 22-year-old Gilmour was found in her Yorkville apartment; she, too, had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in bed.

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She was the daughter of mining tycoon David Gilmour and had aspirations of being a fashion designer.

Her brother, Sean McCowan, attended the press conference at Toronto Police headquarters on Monday. The death of his sister left the family wondering “what could have been” if Erin had not been murdered.

“This is a day that I, and we, have been waiting almost an entire lifetime for,” McCowan told reporters. “It finally puts a name and a face to someone who for all of us had been a ghost.”

He added: “In a way, it’s a relief that someone has been arrested. But it also brings back memories of Erin and her brutal, senseless murder.”

But the Gilmour and Tice families aren’t alone. In Toronto, there are more than 700 unsolved homicides.

Det.-Sgt. Steve Smith, who closed the case, said of those, there are 43 cases where a DNA sample from the crime scene is believed to be the killer’s.

With a three-year grant from Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney general, detectives can put up 15 Toronto cold cases and 15 from the rest of the province for DNA testing each year.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun