Very lengthy article, By Jane Gerster, Aug 6 2018
Who killed Helga Beer? Time is running out to find her murderer
"Helga was a 31-year-old divorcée with red hair styled in a pixie cut brushing her ears. She was, by police accounts, a gregarious woman. She’d come to London from Germany, settling in the forest city seven or so years before her death. Helga spent her days as a hairstylist at the Elizabeth Arden Beauty Salon in the Simpson’s Department Store downtown. She spent her nights with friends at restaurants and bars or friends’ apartments. She retreated to an apartment she shared with one of her brothers.
She was out with friends on Aug. 5, 1968. The night was foggy and warm, wet lingering from an evening rainstorm as the group moved from one spot to the next, nursing drinks and chatting. After midnight, they retreated to a nearby apartment on King Street for a nightcap.
On the street about to go in, Helga spotted someone she appeared to know. Her friends went inside but she stayed on the sidewalk to talk to the man. When Helga came in not long after, he was with her.
Her friends never got his name. They just remembered him as average height: five-feet-nine or five-feet-11-inches tall, somewhere in between? He seemed like he was in his late 20s. He was sturdy too, a solid-looking white man with a full head of dark hair, thick eyebrows, and a noticeably broad nose. Police either didn’t make or didn’t keep a sketch. He was fluent in English, her friends told officers — if he had an accent it was faint, barely discernible."
"A parking lot attendant found Helga’s body after sunup. She was in the back seat of her car, a 1963 Volkswagen, in a parking lot not far from where she’d last been seen. She was naked from the waist down. She’d been beaten, then strangled to death."
"Hers was not the only murder in London that year.
Michael Arntfield, an ex-city cop and cold case expert, recently dug into past homicides in the city using the case files of deceased OPP investigator Dennis Alsop. Alsop had investigated or amassed files on the investigations of many young victims killed the same year as Helga: 16-year-old Jacqueline Dunleavy, 9-year-old Frankie Jensen, 16-year-old Scott Leishman, 19-year-old Lynda White".
Who killed Helga Beer? Time is running out to find her murderer
"Helga was a 31-year-old divorcée with red hair styled in a pixie cut brushing her ears. She was, by police accounts, a gregarious woman. She’d come to London from Germany, settling in the forest city seven or so years before her death. Helga spent her days as a hairstylist at the Elizabeth Arden Beauty Salon in the Simpson’s Department Store downtown. She spent her nights with friends at restaurants and bars or friends’ apartments. She retreated to an apartment she shared with one of her brothers.
She was out with friends on Aug. 5, 1968. The night was foggy and warm, wet lingering from an evening rainstorm as the group moved from one spot to the next, nursing drinks and chatting. After midnight, they retreated to a nearby apartment on King Street for a nightcap.
On the street about to go in, Helga spotted someone she appeared to know. Her friends went inside but she stayed on the sidewalk to talk to the man. When Helga came in not long after, he was with her.
Her friends never got his name. They just remembered him as average height: five-feet-nine or five-feet-11-inches tall, somewhere in between? He seemed like he was in his late 20s. He was sturdy too, a solid-looking white man with a full head of dark hair, thick eyebrows, and a noticeably broad nose. Police either didn’t make or didn’t keep a sketch. He was fluent in English, her friends told officers — if he had an accent it was faint, barely discernible."
"A parking lot attendant found Helga’s body after sunup. She was in the back seat of her car, a 1963 Volkswagen, in a parking lot not far from where she’d last been seen. She was naked from the waist down. She’d been beaten, then strangled to death."
"Hers was not the only murder in London that year.
Michael Arntfield, an ex-city cop and cold case expert, recently dug into past homicides in the city using the case files of deceased OPP investigator Dennis Alsop. Alsop had investigated or amassed files on the investigations of many young victims killed the same year as Helga: 16-year-old Jacqueline Dunleavy, 9-year-old Frankie Jensen, 16-year-old Scott Leishman, 19-year-old Lynda White".
