Toronto police say advances in DNA technology have allowed investigators to identify a suspect in three long-unsolved homicides dating back more than 40 years.Deputy Chief Robert Johnson announced Thursday that genetic genealogy linked Kenneth Smith to the murders of Christine Prince in 1982, Claire Samson in 1983 and Gracelyn Greenidge in 1997. Smith died in Windsor in 2019 at the age of 72. Police said there was no known connection between the victims or between the victims and Smith, describing the killings as crimes of opportunity.“If he were alive today, the Toronto Police Service would arrest Kenneth Smith for the homicides of Christine Prince and Gracelyn Greenidge. And the OPP would arrest him for the homicide of Claire Samson,” Johnson said. “His death means he will never be held to account in a court of law, and we recognize the impact that has on families who have waited so long for justice.”.The first victim was Prince, a 25-year-old from Wales who was working as a nanny in Toronto. Johnson said she was last seen on June 21, 1982, getting on a streetcar on St. Clair Avenue West after a night out with friends. Her body was found the next day in the Rouge River near the Toronto Zoo. Investigators believe she had been sexually assaulted and struck on the head, and that she ultimately died from drowning.A year later, Samson, 23, was found in a remote wooded area about 120 kilometres north of Toronto. OPP Chief Supt. Gonneau said she had been shot twice. Samson was last seen the day before, on Sept. 1, getting into a vehicle driven by an older white man near Jarvis and Gerrard streets.About 14 years after Samson’s death, police say Smith killed Greenidge, 41, in her apartment in North York on July 29, 1997. Det. Sgt. Steve Smith said she died from blunt-force trauma. A co-worker discovered her body after she failed to show up for her shift as a nursing assistant..DNA was collected at each crime scene, but no suspect was identified at the time. In 2016, DNA from the Prince and Samson cases matched the same unknown male profile in the National DNA Data Bank, prompting a joint investigation by Toronto police and the Ontario Provincial Police.A year later, forensic experts determined that the same offender was responsible for Greenidge’s death, although investigators said the condition of the samples and the limits of earlier technology slowed progress.Police partnered in 2022 with Othram, a Texas-based forensic genealogy lab. Earlier this year, investigators identified relatives of the suspect and eventually confirmed that Smith was responsible for all three killings.Detective Sergeant Steve Smith said Kenneth Smith lived in Toronto at the time of the murders and had a history of sexual assault, but he was not considered a suspect during the original investigations.He said there was no clear pattern among the killings and nothing connecting the victims.“It seems to be crimes of opportunity more than anything,” he said.Police believe there may be other victims who have not yet been identified and are asking anyone with information about Smith to come forward.
