Earlier this month Quebec’s La Presse did an article on law enforcement’s use of genetic genealogy to assist in capturing criminals (if you don’t speak French, run it through a translator). It’s almost a daily occurence now that cold cases in the United States are solved using this technique. And these are old cases – 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. People are begin to question why Quebec has had a cold case unit for almost 20 years now and has yet to solve a crime (Guylaine Potvin does not count, that case hasn’t survived the acid test of a trial). In the article I noted that Quebec police for ..read more

Plus tôt ce mois-ci, La Presse a publié un article sur l’utilisation par les forces de l’ordre de la généalogie génétique pour aider à capturer des criminels. C’est presque un événement quotidien maintenant que les cold case aux États-Unis sont résolus en utilisant cette technique. Et ce sont de vieux cas – 30 ans, 40 ans, 50 ans. Les gens commencent à se demander pourquoi le Québec a une unité de cold case depuis près de 20 ans maintenant et n’a pas encore résolu un crime (Guylaine Potvin ne compte pas, cette affaire n’a pas survécu à l’épreuve décisive d’un procès). Dans l’article, j’ai not ..read more

Do you know bagatelle? Think of it as lawn bowling, but the French who invented it placed pins on the turf as obstacles to keep the balls from scoring too easily. When the game moved indoors due to inclement weather, it evolved into bar billiards and, later, pinball. Bagatelle was popular during the reign of Louis XVI; a party was thrown in his honor in 1777 at the Chateau Bagatelle. Louis was bad at games; he later lost his head by guillotine in 1793 ( the French liked other games too, like “the national bathtub”). You know bagatelle probably from the handheld pinball incantation from y ..read more

Connaissez-vous la bagatelle? Captain Kidd bagatelle Considérez-le comme du boulingrin, mais les Français qui l’ont inventé ont placé des quilles sur le gazon comme obstacles pour empêcher les balles de marquer trop facilement. Lorsque le jeu s’est déplacé à l’intérieur en raison du mauvais temps, il a évolué vers le billard de bar et, plus tard, vers le flipper. Bagatelle était populaire sous le règne de Louis XVI ; une fête fut organisée en son honneur en 1777 au Château Bagatelle. Louis était mauvais aux jeux; il perdit ensuite la tête par guillotine en 1793 (les Français aimaient aussi d’a ..read more

Every family loves a game. Puzzles are a great pastime, a necessary gift every December holiday to get you through the winter blahs of January. One Christmas, we gave my dad a puzzle of Tony Esposito, that great Chicago goalkeeper –  I remember a white Blackhawks sweater with a lot of ice, too much ice for my liking. Another Christmas, my sister, Theresa gave him a print of M.C. Escher’s Belvedere, that impossible cube structure – in a way, a reference to Soma – and told him, “you’re an engineer; you figure it out.” Recently the 1000-piece jigsaw made a comeback under two years of lockdow ..read more

The post Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine – Allô Police, Juillet 1982 appeared first on Who Killed Theresa ..read more

The post Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine – Allô Police, Juillet 1982 appeared first on Who Killed Theresa ..read more

We’re having a birthday. I launched Who Killed Theresa in early January, 2003. Twenty years is a long time to catalogue unsolved crime. If you have a memory or a favorite post, please share in the comments. Here are three fun facts about this website: The original black design was based on a WordPress theme, I think it was called “Manson”. It had a watermark photo of Charlie Manson that I had to remove. Original WKT template One of the first posts was based on Kristian Gravenor’s annual Montreal Mirror column about stupid crimes in Quebec. Kristian Gravenor at Montreal’s famous Orange Jule ..read more

Last summer, President Biden signed into law the Homicide Victims’ Families’ Rights Act, which requires federal agencies to revisit cold case murder files and apply new technologies to aid in potential breakthroughs. U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) who co-sponsored the bill had this to say: “This legislation will help ensure federal law enforcement reviews sometimes decades-old cold case files and applies the latest technologies and investigative standards…. This process will help bring grieving families resolution in the midst of tragic circumstances, and I am proud of the bipartisan support ..read more

1982 fashion photo of Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine This is a story about the puzzle of celebrity, excess and indulgence, the lure of centers of power like Montreal and New York City. It has a Life in the Fast Lane quality to it, with shades of Looking for Mr. Goodbar and The Eyes of Laura Mars. This is the murder of Marie-Josée Saint-Antoine, a Montreal fashion model who was stabbed repeatedly in her Gramercy Park apartment in 1982 after an evening of disco dancing in a New York club. A lot has been said about this case, most of it recently. People may say, “Oh that case, we know all about that ..read more