Canada - Christine Jessop, 9, Queensville, Ont, 3 Oct 1984 *killer identified* #3

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Christine Jessop, a 9-year-old girl from Queensville, Ontario. Years before, DNA evidence freed the man charged with her death in one of Canada’s most notorious wrongful conviction cases.

Redgrave researchers worked for months this summer before genealogy and DNA records pointed to Calvin Hoover, a man who had been a friend of the Jessop family, as the likely killer. Hoover committed suicide in 2015.

“I found his name at 2 a.m. one night,” McCarter said. “That genealogy was so hard, compared to Harry’s. All of these people had 12 kids, and their kids had 12 kids, and then I had to keep going until I found Calvin. I knew he had to be from these parents, but I could not find any kids until I found three, all at once. I found them through a voting record, because they all lived in the same household in Ontario.”
South Alabama sophomore solves cold cases using DNA, forensic genealogy - Yellowhammer News
 
imstilla.grandma said:
Christine Jessop, a 9-year-old girl from Queensville, Ontario. Years before, DNA evidence freed the man charged with her death in one of Canada’s most notorious wrongful conviction cases.

Redgrave researchers worked for months this summer before genealogy and DNA records pointed to Calvin Hoover, a man who had been a friend of the Jessop family, as the likely killer. Hoover committed suicide in 2015.

“I found his name at 2 a.m. one night,” McCarter said. “That genealogy was so hard, compared to Harry’s. All of these people had 12 kids, and their kids had 12 kids, and then I had to keep going until I found Calvin. I knew he had to be from these parents, but I could not find any kids until I found three, all at once. I found them through a voting record, because they all lived in the same household in Ontario.”
South Alabama sophomore solves cold cases using DNA, forensic genealogy - Yellowhammer News
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I remember when genealogy was the hobby of a few apparently obsessed retirees. Who would have thought it would turn out to have such a practical value.
 
MistyWaters said:
I notice CJ was quite small for her age at 4’ 9” (45”) height and 40 lbs.
Canada: Kaufman Inquiry Guy Paul Morin - Background Facts

Average for 9 year olds - 49” to 57” in height and 50-90 lbs, if I’m reading this chart correctly.
https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/data/set1clinical/cj41l022.pdf
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I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone post the height and weight of a victim and leave it at that. Maybe I’m missing something? Is there a relevance to this? Are you suggesting that she was small and frail and therefore more of an easy target?
 
Coralina said:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone post the height and weight of a victim and leave it at that. Maybe I’m missing something? Is there a relevance to this? Are you suggesting that she was small and frail and therefore more of an easy target?
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I’m not suggesting anything other than facts stated in the Kaufman inquiry. Clearly she was quite a bit smaller than an average 9 year old.
 
I find it interesting there seemed to be no forensic evidence found other than the DNA on the underpants, which I understand were lying next to her. I think there should have been some other evidence located from the layers of clothing pulled up over her, such as a fallen hair or fibers. Or on her jacket or shoes. Of all the evidence, they were able to find only a bit of DNA on a pair of panties that were no longer even on her?
 
Forest_Wood said:
I find it interesting there seemed to be no forensic evidence found other than the DNA on the underpants, which I understand were lying next to her. I think there should have been some other evidence located from the layers of clothing pulled up over her, such as a fallen hair or fibers. Or on her jacket or shoes. Of all the evidence, they were able to find only a bit of DNA on a pair of panties that were no longer even on her?
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There was hair and fibre evidence that was used by the prosecution to try to convict Morin. The defense brought in their own experts. The first jury refused to convict, but the second jury did.

The story of Christine Jessop and Guy Paul Morin: One murder, two tragedies
 
Forest_Wood said:
I wonder if that same hair evidence yeilded DNA pointing to CH.
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I don't know what condition the hair was in or whether it was ever tested for DNA. IMO, it wasn't as conclusively related to her killer.

The DNA from the underwear had already been removed in 1995 for testing, which exonerated Morin, but I gather that technology destroyed the DNA sample and didn't produce sufficiently detailed results for family tracing.

IIRC, it was a close call with the Golden State killer too, trying to find and acquire enough DNA to run the new tests.
 
otto said:
It sounds like the last 20-30 years of Hoover's life were filled with addiction and misery, so in some ways he paid for the murder by living a life filled with daily despair.
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In some ways? Along with killing that poor child, he stood by while Guy Paul Morin's life was pretty much ruined. We have no idea whether remorse was any kind of factor in his addiction, misery, or suicide. Zero sympathy.
 
nuff said:
In some ways? Along with killing that poor child, he stood by while Guy Paul Morin's life was pretty much ruined. We have no idea whether remorse was any kind of factor in his addiction, misery, or suicide. Zero sympathy.
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I don't think anyone has any sympathy for the suspect. However, knowing that he suffered psychologically since the murder, even though he avoided conviction, is good to know.
 
I definitely want to understand this kind of person, not to sympathize but just to comprehend the truth. Especially now with forensics and DNA genealogy, we're discovering that crimes go unsolved, not because of police incompetence, but because of the ordinariness and unsuspiciouness of the criminals that, it turns out, sometimes live among us.

I don't know whether they're really good actors, or have a Jekyll and Hyde thing, or just lack any emotions of guilt or remorse. The big question to me is, are they really that different from the rest of us, and in what way?

I'm not satisfied any more with fairy tales about the Big, Bad Wolf. Nope, that's not who Little Red Riding Hood needed to be afraid of, it was Calvin Hoover she needed to keep away from, and how on Earth do you warn little girls about the likes of him?
 
Satchie said:
I'm not satisfied any more with fairy tales about the Big, Bad Wolf. Nope, that's not who Little Red Riding Hood needed to be afraid of, it was Calvin Hoover she needed to keep away from, and how on Earth do you warn little girls about the likes of him?
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I think it was more like Calvin Hoover needed to be kept away from her. This darling little girl seemed so unprotected in so many ways. MOO.
 
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'He watched me go to her gravesite for 10 years. I didn’t know this man,' says Heather Hoover

Heather Hoover still has the last photo Christine Jessop gave her in 1984. It's a school picture of the nine-year-old in a white blouse with a big smile on her face. It hung on a wall in Heather's home for years, a reminder of the girl she used to babysit, the girl she searched for, and the girl whose death she grieved.

But for the past four months, that photo has unleashed a torrent of new and devastating emotions. In October, Heather learned her ex-husband, Calvin Hoover, is the man police believe abducted, sexually assaulted and killed the little girl.

"I was devastated — totally shocked," said Heather, 63.

In an exclusive interview with CBC News, the only time she has spoken publicly about the revelation, Heather said she's had sleepless nights since that phone call from police. She's asked herself how the man she was once so close with could have done such a horrific thing and kept it a secret, she said.

"Ten years, he didn't show *advertiser censored*. He didn't show nothing," she said. "How does somebody do that?"

Last October, Toronto police announced they had finally solved the 36-year-old cold case that had gripped the nation and initially led to the wrong man, Guy Paul Morin, being convicted for the crime. The break had finally come with the use of genetic genealogy that linked Calvin Hoover's DNA to the crime scene. Hoover died in 2015.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/christine-jessop-killer-dna-interview-1.5903381


 
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