CANADA Canada - Donna Stearne & Wendy Tedford, both 17, Toronto, 26 Apr 1973

[CrimeSolver]

Yeah, without further information from someone close to the investigation, we are doomed to go over the same old blind suppositions again and again. For us it's just a hobby. For the poor sister it's an agonizingly fruitless search for finality.

 

[CrimeSolver]

Although it's a stretch, I wonder if the same person is responsible for the disappearance of Ingrid Bauer in 1972. She was never found.

http://www.police.york.on.ca/cold_cases/bauer.htm

 

[dxman]

CS: Aware of that case. Bit of a stretch, I think. One article I read indicated that suspect was/is in jail. Her parents no longer speak with the media.

Attn Richard: You said a few posts back that you will be bumping Tedford-Stearne case up. If so, when? NB: Anniversay is April 27.

 

[CrimeSolver]

CS: Aware of that case. Bit of a stretch, I think. One article I read indicated that suspect was/is in jail. Her parents no longer speak with the media.

Really? I have never read of a suspect. Does the article name the person?

 

[dxman]

From DOE Network: www.doenetwork.org/cases/908dfon.html
Read something to same effect elsewhere, but cant remember source.

 

[CrimeSolver]

OK, thanks dxman.

 

[dxman]

The 35th anniversary of this unsolved double homicide is today: April 27th.

 

[CrimeSolver]

dxman, thought you might want to know: I wrote to both the Star and CTV, hoping to initiate some interest in an anniversary story. No response from either media outlet, or the police, as you know. Pathetic. File this case under "dead".

 

[dxman]

CS: Sorry to hear about the lack of response. Media cares not one iota unless case is sensational or it boosts themselves up in whatever way. But you tried, and that is the main thing. One other option would be to contact "Crime Files: Cold Case Edition" again. I am sure that the families would be appreciative. Donna and Wendy are looking down upon you and smiling in thanks.

 

[Wendy's sister Linda]

Hi, I am Linda Wendy's sister and would like to thank you for the effort you have put forth on behalf of my sister and Donna. It has been thirty five years of trying to keep this case in the public eye for me and this is the first time I've ever seen any direct interest from the public. Please keep the chat going. I will be doing another show with Sue Sgambati that I think will air some time in Aug. This time it will be a full half hour. I'll try to post the show time a few days in advance.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Hi, I am Linda Wendy's sister and would like to thank you for the effort you have put forth on behalf of my sister and Donna. It has been thirty five years of trying to keep this case in the public eye for me and this is the first time I've ever seen any direct interest from the public. Please keep the chat going. I will be doing another show with Sue Sgambati that I think will air some time in Aug. This time it will be a full half hour. I'll try to post the show time a few days in advance.

Wendy, first of all welcome to Websleuths. My sister, Donna, after being missing for 11 years was found to have been murdered. Her case remains unsolved. If you need to talk to someone whose been there and knows how you feel, please don't hesitate to drop me a line!

 

[CrimeSolver]

Hi, I am Linda Wendy's sister and would like to thank you for the effort you have put forth on behalf of my sister and Donna. It has been thirty five years of trying to keep this case in the public eye for me and this is the first time I've ever seen any direct interest from the public. Please keep the chat going. I will be doing another show with Sue Sgambati that I think will air some time in Aug. This time it will be a full half hour. I'll try to post the show time a few days in advance.

Welcome, Linda. I hope one day this case will be solved to give your family at least some answers. If you feel up to it, we would appreciate if you could fill in some of the blanks as someone closer to the investigation. That is, if you are privy to any that aren't known and are permitted to air them.
Unfortunately, my cable plan doesn't encompass CourtTV, so I won't be able to watch Crime Files.

 

[Wendy's sister Linda]

Thank you for the nice welcome and thank you to Jeana for her kind offer of support. As to the girls there are many things I could tell you that may help to direct your discussion and stimulate new thoughts and ideas. All of which are needed to solve this case. As I was reading this site it sparked many memories and even thoughts on new avenues I could look at to find out what happend in 1973. So please feel free to ask what you like and I will do my best to answer. Many minds are better then one.
By the way Sue tells me the show may run on more popular stations. Will keep you posted. Linda

 

[CrimeSolver]

Linda,
I haven't thought about this case since this thread went dormant about a month ago, so I only have a couple of general questions at the moment. Maybe dxman will pipe in with his perspective. Anyway, we're not professionals, but you never know, maybe the right eyes will find their way here and prompt a breakthrough.

1. Did police ever have a solid suspect?
2. Did police enquiries in Windsor yield anything aside from the gun? I believe the perp lived there or passed through frequently.
3. Is there suspect DNA or fingerprints (from the gun)?
4. Were police able to identify a vehicle make, model, and colour based on what the witness saw on Wilson, or did it remain as vague as the description in the newspaper report?

I'm sorry, neither the Star nor CTV News were interested in airing this case when I approached them in late April, but maybe they would be if you did. A prominent evening-news re-airing could be the key, just as it was with the Beverley Smith cold case in Raglan. You might also want to try "GTA's Most Wanted", which airs every week on Rogers 10.

 

[Wendy's sister Linda]

Lets hope that the right eyes do find there way to this site. Now to your questions.

No, I don't think they ever had a particular suspect or motive at that time. I think what they thought was that the girls were hitchhiking and just got in the wrong car. But then you have to think, why did they take the bus all night and then decide to hitch at the end. It was just a ten minute walk from home.

Nothing came from the gun other then that it was the weapon used. They told me that it had been passed around to much so it couldn't be traced to any one person.

Nothing was ever said to me about the car the witness saw.

I have tried like you to bring more attention to Wendy and Donna's case and over the years have had small success's. But since the advent of the internet I see more and more opportunity. When people like you with sites like this show such a genuine interest we may just have someone stumble in with the key that unlocks the truth.

 

[CrimeSolver]

Thanks for the answers, Linda. My first instinct is to also believe in the theory that they were hitchhiking and picked up by some loner creep who shot them when they resisted and then took off quickly, afraid the gunfire would alert authorities. But that hypothesis is undermined somewhat by some of the evidence and rumours, such as the ritualistic placement of the bodies and the rumblings of a drug connection. However, if the culprit was a drug dealer who frequented the school zone, I just can't imagine loose lips not having solved the case by now. That brings us to biker gangs and an initiation murder. As I postulated earlier in this thread, the murder of your sister and her friend might be related to the murders of Kathy Potter and Lee Kirk in 1971.

You wrote that you wonder why they would hitchhike if they were ten minutes from home. But weren't they headed for Falstaff Ave.? That's 1.5 - 2 km south and west of the restaurant. I can understand how two carefree early-'70s girls, weary after having been on the move for several hours, would want to catch a quick ride across the 401. Perhaps they started walking south with their thumbs out and were picked up. But their acquaintance, M.A., who was hanging out across Keele, insists he hadn't seen them leave the diner (which is not to say for sure he's right that they never came out the front).

Anyway, we can only hope your upcoming appearance on Crime Files tweaks someone's conscience or memory. Good luck.

 

[dxman]

Hello Linda. God bless you. My prayers are with the Tedford and Stearne families.

As you have read, this thread has been going on and off for about a year now. So you know, most of the thanks you offered in your initial address should be directed to CrimeSolver, who started this thread, and who has been fighting the hardest, on this board, to get the word out to the media, etc. about Wendy and Donna. You might have noticed, that both CrimeSolver and myself have been racking our brains out on this unsolved homicide case, suggesting theories, posing scenarios and so forth. I have
a suite of questions (from the perspective of an amateur), which I will provide in a series of posts, and was wondering if you would be kind enough to respond. If you are unable to answer on certain matters, for investigative reasons or for whatever reason, then – of course – please do not. I will start with the following:

1. Wendy and Donna’s cold case on the TPS website seems to be the only one there. There are quite a number of unsolved homicides in Toronto. Unlike other police agencies, the TPS website does not have a section devoted exclusively to unsolved homicides, which seems rather strange. My questions, then, are these: was the page for Wendy and Donna, with its details, air photos, etc, put on the website as a result of your insistence? If not, do you how it came to be?

2. In a previous thread, I quoted from an Australian website that interviewed you on the case. You were quoted as saying: “To the friends and acquaintances of Wendy and Donna, I would like to say I know there was lots of talk and speculation.” Can you recall any specifics of this talk and speculation?

3. On your website you have a link to a private investigation firm, which I think turns out to be based in New York, and would logically seem to be retained by you. Is this so? Are you able to relate any information on this matter?

4. A few years back there was a blog by a person stating that she interviewed the Tedford and Stearne families on this case for a book. She also claimed to have interviewed the assigned police detectives. Can you confirm this? She posted 4 rather detailed blogs on Wendy and Donna’s case, and they were well written and respectful of the situation, except for one matter which I thought should have been excluded. Also included in her entries was information not found in newspaper articles. However, the blog (including the entries) were taken off the web soonafter. I do not know why. I initially thought that they were removed, perhaps via police instructions due to case sensitivity, but now this seems unlikely as the police would not yield “hold-back” information in the first place. Did you come across these blog entries? Might I ask a few questions about them in another exchange?

Respectfully…dx.

 

[Wendy's sister Linda]

Hello DX, It seems there are a number of sites that I should thank for keeping Wendy & Donna on the net that I didn't know about. Thank you again for your prayers and your efforts to help. I have family visiting right now and so have not looked at e-mail for a number of day's and will try to answer both of you at once.

Crimesolvers: I think it is possible that there is a drug connection as well as a ritualistic one. I know Wendy was looking for a friend she wanted to invite to my sisters birthday party. This person could also get grass. Unfortunatly I can't tell you anymore then that. As to Kathy potter and Lee Kirk, referred to as The Gravel Pit Murders, when I brought this case to the police's attention some years ago, they said there was no connection. That was all they would say. You also asked about the hitchhiking. With the murders surrounding hitchhiking at the time and an incident they had a couple of months before, they had stopped hitchhiking. Now you could say, Oh Ya, thats what they told you. But I remember how scared they were, and to my knowledge they never did it again. You are right though that if they were walking home it would have taken longer then ten minutes. To go down the back way would have taken more like fifteen minutes.


DX: The TPS web site did have a cold case section for about 4 years, then about a year and a half ago they decided to revamp it and are still doing so to this day. It should be from what they are telling me, one of the most comprehensive and interactive cold case sites in the country. Look for a launch some time in Aug. if all goes well. I think the reason Wendy & Donna are the only one's left on the old site is there were two solved that I know of and I think there was only four cases to begin with. It was with lots of persuasion by me that Wendy & Donna were addied to the site.

Now to the program from Australia. I never did a show there, but the quote you mention is directly from one I did do with Sue. Pretty amazing to me that snippits from a show in Canada were seen in Australia. What a small world. As to the reference made about their friends, as you can see from what I said in the question above I definitely think it was someone they knew, not a stranger. Some of there friends even parted way's at that time. They were afraid of someone and it seems they still are.

The private investigation firm you see on my page, contacted me and asked if I would like to link with there page to give more exposure to mine,so I said yes. That was all there was to that.

Yes, I did talk to a book writer some time ago but I don't know if she talked to the Stearne family or not. She did talk to the police though but I don't know what they told her. I had no idea she put up any blogs about Wendy & Donna and I'm disappointed that she did not tell me. She is a very nice person but I don't like the sound of the "matter" or “hold-back” information you speak of. Why the site was taken down I don't know since I was unaware it was there. Anything that was in the blog entries you think I may be able to help you with I will try to answer, and at the same time it will give me some insight into what was in the blog.

Regards Linda

 

[CrimeSolver]

Thank you for clarifying those matters, Linda. I find it very interesting that all you know leads you to believe the killer was someone known to them. If that's the case, it's really time for those who have knowledge of the perp to muster up some courage and integrity and come forward. People who have knowledge of crimes but do nothing are not much better than the criminals themselves.

 

[dxman]

Thank you, Linda, for taking the time to write out your detailed responses.

I have private messaged you about the "matter" you seem concerned with.
I hope I did not overstate things, and my PM will clarify the situation.

Rgds...DX