Post by Sher on Oct 17, 2005 21:27:18 GMT -5
Rhona Duncan, North Vancouver, BC
RHONA Duncan went to party on the night of July 16, 1976.
The 16-year-old North Vancouver teen was joined by her boyfriend, Shawn Mapoles, her close friend Marion Bogue and Bogue's boyfriend, Owen Parry.
There were about 60 teenagers from school at the party in a house on East Queens Avenue.
At about 1 a.m., Duncan and her friends left the party and walked home. They walked together until the boys broke off at West Queens and Mahon, heading for their own homes.
Duncan and her girlfriend parted company near Wolfe Street and Larson Road close to where Bogue lived. It was five blocks from Duncan's house. The time was 2:45 a.m. Bogue saw her friend walk away. It was the last time she would see Duncan alive.
The next morning one of Duncan's neighbors on the way to work found Duncan's body in tall grass in front of a closed garage on Bewicke Avenue.
Duncan's body was within several houses of her home in the 600-block of West 15th Street.
The Carson Graham student had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Her body was nude from the waist down. Her underwear and pants were found nearby.
No one has been charged with the murder.
Duncan's murder is one of 17 unsolved murder cases still open and under investigation by the North Vancouver RCMP.
"They are all solvable," said North Vancouver RCMP Const. Tom Seaman.
In the Duncan case, police have checked 13 suspects. Of that number, five men have not been eliminated as possible perpetrators of the crime.
Seaman said that there was DNA evidence available relating to the identity of Duncan's murderer. He said under current laws, police cannot get a DNA warrant to rule out suspects in a case.
"Right now, a DNA warrant is possible, but very difficult to get unless you have one suspect clearly identified with reasonable and probable grounds," said Seaman.
He said that involves having evidence connecting a suspect to the scene of a crime and the victim.
"It (obtaining a DNA warrant) needs almost the same grounds that you would need to arrest someone and charge them for a crime," said Seaman.
Seaman said police could ask the suspects to voluntarily give their DNA samples. He said a suspect with a criminal history for sexual assault will not likely volunteer to give a DNA sample to clear his name in one case if there are other unsolved cases he has committed.
Seaman said that several of the suspects in the Duncan investigation have criminal pasts that include attacks on women.
Seaman said a suspect asked to volunteer a DNA sample may also decide it's time to disappear.
The police constable said that these types of crime investigations would likely move quicker if there was a data bank of DNA information available on all convicted sex offenders and child molesters.
"Many times these types of offenders reoffend," said Seaman.
On the night that Duncan was murdered, a neighbor woke up at around 3 a.m. to hear voices outside the back of their house. The neighbor woke her husband. He got out of bed, went to the back of his house where he heard a male and female arguing. The female voice sounded upset. The neighbor yelled outside, "What's going on here." The voices stopped. The neighbor went back to bed.
Duncan's body was discovered at 9 a.m. the next morning. Police were called and a crowd grew around the murder scene. Police kept the crowd from getting close.
Duncan's parents had awakened that morning and realized their daughter had not come home the night before.
Duncan's father, now deceased, and mother went out to see what all the commotion was about at the end of the block. A police officer told them that there was a dead girl there. The parents described their missing daughter and the clothes she wore: a blouse which was knotted at the front waist and light brown corduroy pants.
Seaman said the officers kept Duncan's parents away from the murder scene because the description of their daughter matched the dead girl whose body was within metres of where they were standing.
Seaman said the parents started to realize that Duncan was dead, but it was not confirmed by police.
"The officers obviously didn't want to confirm with them at that time because they were not 100% sure," said Seaman.
Duncan's father went to the RCMP detachment office and started to fill out a missing person's report. Police took him to the hospital across the street where he identified his dead daughter.
Among the several possible murder suspects in this case was a man who four days before grabbed and attempted to rape a woman at nearby 21st Street and Mahon Avenue.
The 27-year-old victim of the attack was grabbed from behind. Police say her assailant tried to pull down her underwear.
The woman fought and screamed. A light went on at a nearby house and the attacker ran off.
Police have a composite of the man.
This attacker's description is similar to a description of a young drunk man seen near Wolfe Street and Larson around the time of Duncan's murder.
The intoxicated man was Caucasian, 5'7" with dirty blondish shoulder length hair. He was slim and around 18 years old. He was wearing dark clothes.
Another suspect theory centres around the early morning argument heard between a male and female near the murder scene.
The autopsy showed there were no visible "severe" wounds on Duncan's body. No weapon was found in the area.
It also concluded that Duncan had not put up a big struggle with her murderer, which Seaman said could indicate that the victim knew her attacker.
There were marks on Duncan's neck that the autopsy indicated showed strangulation, but the pressure that caused the marks was not enough to cause death.
Nevertheless, Duncan's death was determined to have been caused by strangulation.
Duncan died at around 4 a.m., one hour after the neighbors heard the voices arguing outside.
RHONA Duncan went to party on the night of July 16, 1976.
The 16-year-old North Vancouver teen was joined by her boyfriend, Shawn Mapoles, her close friend Marion Bogue and Bogue's boyfriend, Owen Parry.
There were about 60 teenagers from school at the party in a house on East Queens Avenue.
At about 1 a.m., Duncan and her friends left the party and walked home. They walked together until the boys broke off at West Queens and Mahon, heading for their own homes.
Duncan and her girlfriend parted company near Wolfe Street and Larson Road close to where Bogue lived. It was five blocks from Duncan's house. The time was 2:45 a.m. Bogue saw her friend walk away. It was the last time she would see Duncan alive.
The next morning one of Duncan's neighbors on the way to work found Duncan's body in tall grass in front of a closed garage on Bewicke Avenue.
Duncan's body was within several houses of her home in the 600-block of West 15th Street.
The Carson Graham student had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Her body was nude from the waist down. Her underwear and pants were found nearby.
No one has been charged with the murder.
Duncan's murder is one of 17 unsolved murder cases still open and under investigation by the North Vancouver RCMP.
"They are all solvable," said North Vancouver RCMP Const. Tom Seaman.
In the Duncan case, police have checked 13 suspects. Of that number, five men have not been eliminated as possible perpetrators of the crime.
Seaman said that there was DNA evidence available relating to the identity of Duncan's murderer. He said under current laws, police cannot get a DNA warrant to rule out suspects in a case.
"Right now, a DNA warrant is possible, but very difficult to get unless you have one suspect clearly identified with reasonable and probable grounds," said Seaman.
He said that involves having evidence connecting a suspect to the scene of a crime and the victim.
"It (obtaining a DNA warrant) needs almost the same grounds that you would need to arrest someone and charge them for a crime," said Seaman.
Seaman said police could ask the suspects to voluntarily give their DNA samples. He said a suspect with a criminal history for sexual assault will not likely volunteer to give a DNA sample to clear his name in one case if there are other unsolved cases he has committed.
Seaman said that several of the suspects in the Duncan investigation have criminal pasts that include attacks on women.
Seaman said a suspect asked to volunteer a DNA sample may also decide it's time to disappear.
The police constable said that these types of crime investigations would likely move quicker if there was a data bank of DNA information available on all convicted sex offenders and child molesters.
"Many times these types of offenders reoffend," said Seaman.
On the night that Duncan was murdered, a neighbor woke up at around 3 a.m. to hear voices outside the back of their house. The neighbor woke her husband. He got out of bed, went to the back of his house where he heard a male and female arguing. The female voice sounded upset. The neighbor yelled outside, "What's going on here." The voices stopped. The neighbor went back to bed.
Duncan's body was discovered at 9 a.m. the next morning. Police were called and a crowd grew around the murder scene. Police kept the crowd from getting close.
Duncan's parents had awakened that morning and realized their daughter had not come home the night before.
Duncan's father, now deceased, and mother went out to see what all the commotion was about at the end of the block. A police officer told them that there was a dead girl there. The parents described their missing daughter and the clothes she wore: a blouse which was knotted at the front waist and light brown corduroy pants.
Seaman said the officers kept Duncan's parents away from the murder scene because the description of their daughter matched the dead girl whose body was within metres of where they were standing.
Seaman said the parents started to realize that Duncan was dead, but it was not confirmed by police.
"The officers obviously didn't want to confirm with them at that time because they were not 100% sure," said Seaman.
Duncan's father went to the RCMP detachment office and started to fill out a missing person's report. Police took him to the hospital across the street where he identified his dead daughter.
Among the several possible murder suspects in this case was a man who four days before grabbed and attempted to rape a woman at nearby 21st Street and Mahon Avenue.
The 27-year-old victim of the attack was grabbed from behind. Police say her assailant tried to pull down her underwear.
The woman fought and screamed. A light went on at a nearby house and the attacker ran off.
Police have a composite of the man.
This attacker's description is similar to a description of a young drunk man seen near Wolfe Street and Larson around the time of Duncan's murder.
The intoxicated man was Caucasian, 5'7" with dirty blondish shoulder length hair. He was slim and around 18 years old. He was wearing dark clothes.
Another suspect theory centres around the early morning argument heard between a male and female near the murder scene.
The autopsy showed there were no visible "severe" wounds on Duncan's body. No weapon was found in the area.
It also concluded that Duncan had not put up a big struggle with her murderer, which Seaman said could indicate that the victim knew her attacker.
There were marks on Duncan's neck that the autopsy indicated showed strangulation, but the pressure that caused the marks was not enough to cause death.
Nevertheless, Duncan's death was determined to have been caused by strangulation.
Duncan died at around 4 a.m., one hour after the neighbors heard the voices arguing outside.
