CANADA Canada - Karen Caughlin, 14, Sarnia, Ont, 16 March 1974

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http://www.theobserver.ca/2016/03/16/investigation-continues-into-teens-death-in-1974

Police are trying to refine their call for information this year, said Det-Insp. Chris Avery, who heads the OPP investigation with the service's criminal investigations branch.

They're specifically calling for anyone to come forward who may have discussed attending or hosting a social gathering in Petrolia after going to the roller-skating rink.

“The video that we put out in the past, we didn't really emphasize that point,” said Avery, referring to a case chronology video produced in 2014 that's still active on the OPP YouTube channel and has been viewed more than 16,000 times.

“We were looking mostly in the areas of Wellington and Brock Street South where she went missing from,” he said.

“We''d like to try and follow up on the other end and see if we can identify where this party was, who was in attendance, of if there was a party out that way.”
 
http://www.lfpress.com/2015/03/16/l...ormation-into-1974-homicide-of-karen-caughlin
[video=youtube;4qaWsh01osM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qaWsh01osM[/video]

March 16, 2015
The OPP said Monday it continues to receive information from the public about the death, 41 years ago, of Sarnia teen Karen Caughlin.

The body of the 14-year-old girl was found the morning of March 16, 1974 near the side of what is now Plowing Match Road, between Churchill Line and LaSalle Line, in Enniskillen Township.

That was nine hours after 12:50 a.m., the time when friends she had been rollerskating with at the former Rose Gardens in Point Edward dropped Caughlin off on Brock Street, where she had been expected to spend the night with another friend who lived near her home.

But, the friend said Caughlin never arrived, and the OPP continues to appeal to the public to help its investigators fill in the nine-hour gap between the time she was last seen and when her body was discovered 22 kilometres away.

Last March, on the 40th anniversary of the discovery, OPP investigators released a seven-minute video laying out the chronology of the case. It remains posted on the official OPP YouTube channel and has been viewed more than 9,700 times.

"The OPP video now reaches an audience that may have relocated from the Sarnia area since 1974, and has effectively generated some new information that wasn't available before 2014," Det.-Supt. Dave Truax said in a press release issued Monday, on the anniversary of the body's discovery.

"We remain confident that someone will contribute something from that time that will help explain Karen's tragic loss for her family and friends," he added.
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"(OPP Det.-Insp.) Chris Avery told me that they had eyes on someone," Schwemler said.

"That's all he said, though. No more information than that, just this little tidbit."

In March 2014, Truax said every lead received by the OPP is investigated. He added the OPP never closes a case until there's an arrest, or compelling evidence the likely perpetrator has died, or is already serving time for a significant conviction.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact Det. Const. Rob Carruthers at Lambton County OPP at 1-519-882-1011. People can also call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or submit information online.
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http://www.lfpress.com/2015/03/16/l...ormation-into-1974-homicide-of-karen-caughlin

Police continue to focus on addressing the nine hour gap between the time Karen was last seen and when her body was discovered 22 km away.

The investigative team wants to hear from or about anyone who may have discussed attending a social gathering in Petrolia after going to the Rose Gardens roller skating rink, perhaps the day before Karen was last seen alive
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A $50,000 reward remains in place for anyone with information on Caughlin’s death.
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http://www.lfpress.com/2017/12/14/n...-teens-1974-death-revealed-at-news-conference
Dec 15 2017
[h=2]Investigators say Sarnia teen killed in 1974 when she was hit by a vehicle while walking[/h]
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Lambton OPP on Thursday supplied some photos of the clothes Karen Caughlin was wearing the night she was killed in March 1974. Police now say the 14-year-old was struck by a vehicle and her body was moved to a shallow ditch near Petrolia. They're hoping the public will come forward with more information to crack the 43-year-old cold case.
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PETROLIA - Police believe 14-year-old Karen Caughlin was not beaten to death in 1974 but instead came to an equally chilling end: Struck in the fog by a motorist who moved her body a couple concession roads away to a ditch rather than seek medical care, she may have spent the last minutes or even hours of her life suffering from her fatal injuries.

“We don’t know if she was alive when someone left her,” OPP Det.-Insp. Chris Avery said at a news conference Thursday
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For decades, the OPP said the Sarnia teenager was the victim of homicide and only investigated that possibility, even though some in her community speculated that it was a vehicle that brought about her demise, Avery said.

But after Avery took over the investigation five years ago, he broadened the probe, seeking a new review of medical evidence and arranging for 3D scanning of the clothes Caughlin wore the day she was found dead, March 16, 1974.

Considered together, the review and scans seem to show the teenager was struck by a vehicle and not beaten.

“I’m very certain,” Avery said.

He also believes he’s on the path to find out what type of vehicle struck the teen by this time next year. “I’m hopeful for that.”
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Her battered body was discovered nine hours later and 22 kilometres away outside Petrolia in a shallow ditch along what is now called Plowing Match Road. Evidence suggests she had been struck by a vehicle about three kilometres away on Oil Heritage Road, OPP said.

Police are appealing to the public to come forward with information that will help them resolve the investigation.

“We know people know what happened to Karen and strongly urge them to come forward,” Avery said. “The family deserves the resolution we have been seeking.”
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OPP ask anyone with information about the case to call Lambton County OPP at 519-882-1011 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. Tips can also be left online at tipsubmit.com
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rbbm.
 

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If it was an accident, one would think whom hit her would have done something to help. Even call an emergency number when arriving else where to let them know someone has been hit and give the area where she could be found. But that didnot happen, she was left where found and the driver left the scene and not report it........After reading your updated article, when she left the house voluntarily or not, she may had abruptly left the vehicle after an argument or some other entanglement with the driver. And the driver followed her in the vehicle and struck her from behind from looking out the clothing. Her right pants leg is ripped just about where the left front of a vehicle would have hit her and tore her clothes. She probably was walking on the side of the road, and the headlight area of the vehicle struck her but not all of her so not to get stuck perhaps on the side of the road. It could all had been an horrible accident, with the driver pulling over to talk to her again, but got to close and struck her by accident and panicked and left her where found. Or it could have been murder by running her down and leaving her to die. Whomever struck her, i said she knew them directly or indirectly but knew them in some aspect. I say she left with this person sometime after being dropped off after the staking thing. Still think the person she left with lived in the area, and she came upon them by chance since they were already there, outside or whatever after being dropped off. For a cold night she not wearing a coat??????? She looks more dressed for early spring, but warm evening. Hard to believe she left again with no coat, or perhaps they didn't find it at the crime scene. jeans t shirt and hoodie but no coat. She may had taken it off inside the vehicle and just didn't put it back on after leaving the vehicle abruptly for whatever reason............HE/SHE after striking her, may had moved her farther down the road and on the side so no other drivers coming buy would see her laying in the road, on the side of the road until several hours, daytime perhaps. .........Or it could be she left one vehicle and started to walk away, and the driver left the area, and someone else came by didn't see her and struck her, panicked and left her without calling emergency for help.

ADD ON ... I think she was hit where her purse was found there on that road. Then made a left on lasalle line road a right turn on plowing road i think it is. Left her body there on plowing, and then made a left turn on churchill road and headed back into the area where she left after coming home from the staking ring. He lives/lived in that area where she was last seen.
 
Karen Caughlin


The Government of the Province of Ontario is offering a reward in the amount of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the murder of Karen CAUGHLIN.

On the early morning of March 16, 1974, Karen CAUGHLIN, age 14, was dropped off on Brock Street South in SARNIA, Ontario, in front of her girlfriend’s house. She never entered the residence and her body was discovered later that day in a shallow ditch at the edge of a gravel side road a few miles northwest of the Town of PETROLIA, Ontario.

Any person having information regarding the person(s) responsible for the murder of Karen CAUGHLIN should communicate immediately with the Director of the Criminal Investigations Branch, Ontario Provincial Police at 1-888-310-1122 or (705) 329-6111, their nearest police authority, or Crime Stoppers.

This reward will be apportioned as deemed just by the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services for the Province of Ontario and the Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police.

LINK:
Unsolved Homicides | Sarnia Police Service
 
March 16 2022
Karen Caughlin death investigation | CTV News
''Wednesday marks the 48th anniversary of the death of Sarnia, Ont. teenager Karen Caughlin.

Karen, 14, was dropped off early on March 16, 1974, in front of a friend's house on Brock Street South in the city.

Her body was found near the side of what is now known as Plowing Match Road, between Churchill Line and Lasalle Line on Saturday, March 16.''

''In 2017, police revealed her injuries appeared to be consistent with being hit by a vehicle, and that her body is believed to have been moved from where she was fatally struck, to the location where she was found.

Police say a memorial to Karen on Plowing Match Road has been removed. Family members are asking those who took it to return it or drop it off at the Petrolia OPP detachment at 4224 Oil Heritage Road.''

Police continue to investigate Karen's disappearance and death. A $50,000 reward is being offered for information into the case.
 
April 19 2022 rbbm.
Want to solve cold cases? Don't count on police: London author | London Free Press (lfpress.com)
book1-e1650326612717.jpg

''London author Michael Arntfield analyses the cases of Joe Grozelle and Karen Caughlin in his new book How To Solve a Cold Case. (Handout photos)

A former London police detective has penned a new book on unsolved homicides in which he argues police alone aren’t always best suited to investigate cold cases.''

''The first is the March 16, 1974, death of Sarnia teenager Karen Caughlin, whose body was discovered in a shallow ditch off what is now Plowing Match Road near Petrolia.
Caughlin, 14, was last seen alive by friends who dropped her off a few blocks from a friend’s Brock Street home after a night of roller skating at the former Rose Gardens in Point Edward.
Investigators ruled the case a homicide, but released few other details at the time, leading residents in Lambton County to fear Caughlin’s killer might still have been living among them. It wasn’t until 2017 that the OPP revealed they believed Caughlin likely was the victim of a hit-and-run.

Arntfield questions the OPP’s decision to withhold that information from the public or other police forces looking for potential links between Caughlin’s death and other unsolved killings of teenage girls in Southwestern Ontario.
“For obvious reasons, it might have been useful for the public to know this information in 1974, when damage to the car might have been readily visible and the driver locatable,” he writes. “Why did police choose not to disclose this information in the initial stages of their investigation? . . . For whatever reason, the police chose to lie by omission.”
There’s a “minimal chance” the case will ever be solved, Arntfield said. “The public has never been armed with the information they need to provide meaningful tips to police.”
 
JoyMBee said:
blackburnnews.com

OPP issue plea for information on anniversary of Karen Caughlin’s death

Lambton OPP say 14-year-old Karen Ann Caughlin was last seen on the night of Friday, March 15, 49 years ago.
blackburnnews.com blackburnnews.com
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from link, rbbm.
''Police said the Sarnia teen had been at the “Rose Garden Roller Rink” with friends before being dropped off at a girlfriend’s house on Brock Street at around midnight, but never made it inside the home.

In 2017, police said new information in the case had revealed that her injuries were consistent with being struck by a motor vehicle. It’s believed her body was moved from where she was hit to where it was eventually discovered.''
 
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