They were there to serve him a DNA warrant to obtain a blood sample they planned to compare to DNA from the crime scene of the unsolved 1983 murders of Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour in Toronto.
Typically, police will attempt to covertly collect DNA from a suspect and then match it to crime scene evidence before running a DNA warrant to confirm what they already suspect to be true.
In this case, the police had tried but failed to surreptitiously collect Sutherland’s DNA. In a rare move, they managed to convince a judge that it was reasonable to believe Sutherland committed the murders and that his DNA could help prove it.
Watch “Cold Case Ghost” on The Fifth Estate on CBC Gem
Sutherland is from a family of five siblings. The Fifth Estate learned that the police had already cleared the other four and the process of eliminating them led to Sutherland’s door. He was arrested and charged with two counts of first degree murder.
The police had used a technique known as investigative genetic genealogy. It involves entering suspected crime scene DNA into public DNA family tree websites to identify if not the suspect himself, then distant relatives from whom police and genealogists can eventually link a suspect.
Joseph George Sutherland, 61, of Musune, Ont., faces two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the 1983 murders of Tice and Gilmour. (Joseph George Sutherland/Facebook)
Erin Gilmour’s brother told The Fifth Estate that his family knew police had narrowed the search to one family, which made the waiting process that much more difficult.
“I’m thinking about it [was] they just… drove us crazy. Because … we know you have it … in three people,” Kaelin McCowan said.
Det. Sgt. Stephen Smith of the Toronto Police Service’s cold case unit declined to comment on the warrant or any other details related to the arrest.
“We are looking forward to the court process and we will be able to test the IGG process [investigative genetic genealogy] in a Canadian courtroom,” Smith said.
Gilmour’s siblings Sean McCowan, left, and Kaelin McCowan, right, say it was hard to wait knowing police had narrowed their search to a specific family in the investigation into their sister’s murder. (John Badcock/CBC)
If the case goes to trial, it will be the first time a person has gone on trial in Canada after being arrested for genetic genealogy research.
In 2020, genetic genealogy was used to identify a killer in the case of Christine Jessop, a nine-year-old girl who was kidnapped from a small Ontario town and killed in 1984. However, the suspect died in 2015 before charges were laid.
“I literally burst into tears”
Erin Gilmour, 22, was killed on December 20, 1983. Her mother, Anna McCowan-Johnson, died two years ago, but she is survived by her father, David Gilmour, and her two younger brothers, Kaelin McCowan and Sean McCowan. Both brothers were present at the police news conference announcing the arrest this week. “[Det. Steve Smith] I called … and I pick up the phone and he’s like, ‘We got him,’” Sean McCowan said. “I literally burst into tears … there was a lot of swearing and very happy and a lot of tears. … It was the best phone call I’ve ever had in my life.” Gilmour, left, is pictured with her mother Anna McCowan-Johnson. Gilmour’s brother Sean McCowan said their mother, who died two years ago, “would have been so relieved an arrest had been made”. (Submitted by Kristin Basso) McCowan said the first person he contacted after that was his younger brother, Kaelin. “I was surprised. I mean, we knew there was some kind of action going on that was leading up to the choke … just who it was,” Kaelin McCowan said. “I think knowing a name and seeing a face was like … a huge, huge moment.” He thought about his mom and how she must have felt when she lost her only daughter. “For my mom to have gone through that — and I know I just had kids — it was like, I can’t imagine dealing with that … losing a child like that.”
“This was like torture”
Susan Tice’s family did not attend the press conference. Tice had four children: Ben, John, Christian and Jason.
Christian, her only daughter, was 16 at the time of her mother’s death. She was absent from the camp in Calgary when her mother was killed in Toronto on August 17, 1983.
He remembers the moment he first saw Sutherland’s photo at the police press conference on Monday.
“The most shocking thing to me was how young he was [in 1983]Tice said. “Of course I’m so relieved. And there is a part of me… that does a little happy dance. There is joy.”
Tice appears shortly before her death. (Submitted by name withheld)
Although a criminal charge is not a conviction, Tice is confident police have arrested the right person. She said she punched the picture of her mother at home and said out loud, “We finally got him for you.”
“That’s the thing that’s been sitting with me for 39 years is that the guy got away with it.”
But she said it’s important to her that people don’t lose sight of how brutal the killings were.
Police say both women were sexually assaulted before they were killed.
“Knowing that their last moments in life were so full of terror … let’s not beat around the bush, this was like torture. It’s probably the scariest way for us as women to go,” Tice said.
The first person Tice called after hearing the news of the arrest was her mother’s best friend, Anne Chisholm.
They met as teenagers
Chisholm, 85, and Susan Tice were the same age. They met at camp when they were teenagers. Tice, right, with her best friend, Anne Chisholm, left, in 1958, the year they first met at Camp Wapomeo in Algonquin Provincial Park. (Submitted by Anne Chisholm) Chisolm said she learned of the arrest by watching the news on television. And while the trial and possible conviction is far from certain, the first thing he thought was, “They got the bastard.” “It really pisses me off that he didn’t have all the 40 years that I had,” Chisolm said. “That we didn’t grow old together because I had a great life and it’s terrible that she didn’t.” The day after his arrest, Sutherland was flown to Toronto, where he is being held without bail. Sutherland has his first court appearance via video on Dec. 9 at the Old City Hall courthouse in Toronto. WATCHES | Inside the 39-year search for a suspect in the brutal murders of 2 women:
