Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of assault and murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice were both killed in 1983 in Toronto, by a person whose identity remained unknown for the decades that followed. Erin Gilmour was found dead in her apartment in December 1983. The murderer sexually assaulted her after he tied her hands and mouth. He then stabbed her in the chest two times, leaving her head. She was 22 years old at the time of the murder, according to the Toronto Star.
Four months prior to that, Susan Tice was also found dead. At that time, she was a mother of four and had only recently bought the house. Her children were yet to move in with her. In a very similar pattern, the killer entered 45-year-old Susan’s home and sexually assaulted her. He then stabbed her 13 times. Despite the pattern and the similarity in the crimes inflicted on Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice, authorities could not track down the identity of the killer for decades to come.
According to The Guardian, authorities confirmed that the killer in both cases was the same person through DNA testing in 2000. Much later, in 2019, a genetic testing company based in Houston verified the genetic evidence collected from both crimes, called Family Tree DNA. Authorities then narrowed down on a few of Joseph George Sutherland‘s close relatives. They then asked for his DNA samples to match them with the ones at the crime scene in Erin Gilmour and Tice’s homes.
The police also found out that Sutherland had been living in Toronto at the time of the crimes. They then charged him with the killings of Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice.
How much prison time did Erin Gilmour’s killer Joseph George Sutherland get?
Joseph George Sutherland then pleaded guilty to the sexual assault and murder of Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour. He was convicted of second-degree murder in both killings. Sutherland was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole for 21 years. He was 61 years old when the police arrested him. He was just 21 when he committed both crimes. Sutherland reportedly apologized for his actions during the trial, according to CBC News.
Of the two killings, the murder of Erin Gilmour was largely publicized. This was because she was the daughter of David Gilmour, who was a Canadian tycoon. He was also a co-founder of Barrick Gold. Barrick Gold was the world’s largest gold-mining company at that time. Oxygen reported that the son of Peter Munk, Barrick Gold’s founder, was the one to find her dead inside her home in December 1983.
The police announced that they would now be cross-checking if Joseph George Sutherland was involved in any other unsolved crimes with the help of DNA evidence. However, his attorneys argued that this was his only time committing crimes. During the trial, the court acknowledged that attending a residential school created a sense of isolation in Sutherland and drifted him away from his language and culture. The court also considered the physical abuse that Sutherland was subject to years before he murdered Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice, CBC News reported.
