Canadian True Crime - The Murder of Christine Jessop [2]

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

[Part 2 of 2] A decade after the brutal murder of Christine Jessop, a DNA breakthrough completely clears Guy Paul Morin. But it would be another 25 years before the real killer is revealed.In this two-part series, we share the full story of Christine Jessop — the one her family waited decades for the courage to tell – with insight from the documentary filmmaker who spent years earning their trust.Additional content warning: this is about the murder and sexual assault of a child. Minimal graphic details will be given. Please take care when listening.The Christine Jessop Story is a new three-part documentary series available on Crave (this episode is not sponsored). For the first time, Christine’s family gives their unfiltered truth about the case that captivated Canada. It’s a story of corrupt policing, revolutionary forensics, and a family forced to go through the unthinkable.Look out for early, ad-free release on CTC premium feeds: available on Amazon Music (included with Prime), Apple Podcasts, Patreon and Supercast.Canadian True Crime donates monthly to those facing injustice. This month we’ve donated to the Sexual Assault Centre of Kingston, who are supporting 28 victim-complainants involved in the ongoing sex trafficking trial of Michael Haaima of Kingston. Donate here and note “Haaima” in the message box.Full list of resources, information sources, and more:www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production, funded mainly through advertising. You can listen to Canadian True Crime ad-free and early on Amazon music included with Prime, Apple Podcasts, Patreon, and Supercast. The podcast often has disturbing content and coarse language. It's not for everyone. This is part two of a two-part series. An additional content warning. This case centers around the murder and sexual assault of a child, while there are no graphic details about the assault. you will hear some details about the autopsy that might be difficult to hear. Please take care when listening. In October of 2020, the Toronto Police held a press conference with an unexpected update in the Christine Jessop case.

This is Chief of Police Jim Raymer. Thank you for joining us this afternoon. It was October 3rd, 1984, when 9-year-old Christine Jessup went missing from her home in Queensville, Ontario. Tragically, on December 31st, 1984, Christine was found in Sunderland, Ontario. She had been stabbed to death, and evidence that she had been sexually assaulted

was located at the crime scene. On Friday, October 9th, 2020, we positively confirmed the identification of the person responsible for the murder of Christine Jessup. Let's go back 30 years to 1990. Where we left off, Guy Paul Moran had been found not guilty of the murder of Christine Jessop,

his next-door neighbor. Witnesses described his demeanor as odd, flat, and unemotional. He was weird. He didn't help search for Christine and didn't go to her funeral. It was this that sparked the police's tunnel vision, but even then, they didn't manage to. dig up any definitive evidence linking Guy Paul to the crime, because it wasn't him. But to the Jessop family and many in the wider community, the not guilty verdict was seen as

a grave miscarriage of justice. They'd been whipped into a frenzy of fear and paranoia that they believed would only dissipate with a guilty verdict, and that fear was stronger than ever. it felt safer to believe that it had to have been Guy Paul Moran. The Crown appealed the verdict and a second trial was ordered. Then, Christine's remains were exhumed so another autopsy could be conducted. Kenny had found those extra bones at the scene where who remains had been found. The second autopsy confirmed they did belong to Christine. It also shed new light on the disturbing level of violence the little girl faced.

After a series of delays, Guy Paul Moran's second trial was held in 1991. For the first time, the court heard evidence that Christine had been stabbed more than 200 times. There were deep wounds across her. ribs and spine, as well as little nicks, hesitation marks showing her attacker had paused mid-assault. She had a broken nose and severe blunt trauma to her face. The defensive wounds on Christine's arms showed she put up a brave fight. These injuries indicated a prolonged attack. In addition, the Crown insisted part of the autopsy testimony amounted to evidence that the killer had tried to decapitate Christine. This ended up becoming the major headline in the

news cycle and the horror of it all snowballed from there. The headlines were devastating for the Jessop family and the forensic anthropologist who performed the second autopsy confirmed to the filmmakers of the Christine Jessop story that this decapitation narrative was simply not true. There was extensive neck damage, but it was likely caused by animals after Christine's body had been disposed of. Same thing with the way her legs were found, which suggested injury sustained during a violent sexual assault and was extremely traumatizing for her family to have to think about. But the forensic anthropologist also confirmed that this was likely the result of animal activity during the three months before Christine's remains were discovered.

Of course, this information doesn't make the situation any better. It doesn't take away the fact that the tiny nine-year-old had been violently attacked, sexually assaulted, and stabbed to death in the most aggressive of ways. What could an innocent child have done to instigate that much anger in a grown man? A sustained attack like that doesn't come out of nowhere. it would have taken some time to stab someone 200 times and at some point Christine would have very clearly been dead yet he continued to stab her. According to the documentary, criminologists and profilers believe that this probably wasn't

the first time that the perpetrator had killed someone. At this second trial, the court heard evidence that the stab wounds could have been made by a pocket knife, similar to the one that police found that belonged to Guy Paul Moran. But cross-examination revealed that it could have been any ordinary kitchen knife as well. There was nothing special about Guy Paul's pocket knife. As well as evidence from the forensic anthropologist about the autopsy, the trial heard from about 100 witnesses, many who gave the same evidence as the first trial. Guy Paul Moran hired a new legal team for a fresh defence.

There was the jailhouse confessions from the two cellmates who claimed Guy Paul had confessed. By this point, it was well known that they were liars and fraudsters who had clear incentives to fabricate evidence in exchange for special treatment. The Crown Prosecutor acknowledged this, but also described them both as men who matured and became ethical and productive citizens. Therefore, the jury should believe them.

There was the partly recorded police interview where detectives Shep and Fitz claimed Guy Paul Moran made odd comments about morally corrupt little girls but were never actually captured on tape. There was evidence presented about the evolving timeline. Guy Paul Moran's defense argued it was logistically impossible for him to have committed the crime, since he left work in Toronto at 3.32 p.m. did some shopping and did not get home to

Queensville until about 5 or 5.30 p.m. By this point, it had already been more than an hour since Christine's mother Janet and brother Kenny had arrived home to find her missing. And Guy Paul's family members corroborated his alibi. They saw him arriving home at that time with multiple grocery bags and confirmed he was home for the rest of the night. But the family's private nature seemed suspicious to the police

and the Crown. The Crown's theory was based on an assumption that Guy Paul Moran was lying, that he didn't stop to get groceries. He actually drove straight home from work and abducted Christine Jessup within minutes. It was a very tight timeline that had only entered the realm of possibility

after the police put in a lot of work to finesse it. The earliest Guy Paul could have arrived home from work was still five minutes after Janet and Kenny estimated they arrived home and found Christine missing. That's the point that Guy Paul should have been excluded as a suspect entirely. But Detective Shep and Fitz and their tunnel vision convinced Janet and Kenny to shift their estimate just enough to keep Guy Paul in the frame. The Crown's theory was that the 24-year-old drove straight home from work, went up to his bedroom to practice clarinet, and must have spotted Christine outside with her new recorder. He used their shared interest in music to lure the little girl away, a sequence the crown said unfolded in a matter of minutes.

And it was based on the assumption that Guy Paul's secretive family were lying about what time he got home to give him an alibi. At the second trial, the court again heard about the hair found in Christine's necklace that could have come from Guy Paul Moran, and the fibres and hairs found in the Moran's Honda that could have come from Christine. A senior forensic analyst testified that this evidence was strong enough to implicate Guy Paul as a suspect. But this expert witness also admitted that the evidence was not so strong that he would go to the wall to defend it. The defense pointed out that the Moran family's Honda also had a lot of dog hair inside it. So how was it that not a

single dog hair was found with Christine's remains or possessions, and the issues around careless storage and handling with potential cross-contamination was still present. The court heard that some fibers from the crime scene had in fact been contaminated with fibers from the lab attendants' Angora sweater. The forensic witnesses downplayed the clear lack of scientific certainty. Unfortunately, the science of forensic testing, had not advanced in a way that was meaningful by the second trial,

so it was just the same vague evidence from the first, now asserted with greater conviction. While most of the second trial was consistent with the first, there were a few other key differences. Remember Ryder, the police tracker dog, who apparently linked Christine Jessup sent to the Moran family's Honda. There was no evidence about this at the first trial, but all bets were off with the second.

It wouldn't come out until later, but perhaps the reason this evidence didn't make it to the first trial was because the officer was not a trained dog handler and Ryder was not actually a police dog. He was the officer's own pet German Shepherd. That officer would claim he had trained Ryder himself to track drugs, but when asked what drugs he was using for that training, the officer would say he obtained marijuana from fellow officers

and raided the police evidence locker. This obviously caused a lot of public outrage, leading to the Ontario Provincial Police announcing that neither the dog nor the officer had received the appropriate training. And there was absolutely nothing to suggest that Christine Jessop had been in the Moran family car. But back at the second trial,

the court heard that Ryder, who was definitely a trained police dog with a trained officer, had definitively tracked Christine Stent to the Moran family's Honda. Another key difference at the second trial was that the defense dropped the tangent about psychiatric expert testimony that Guy Paul was mentally ill with schizophrenia, a diagnosis that never eventuated. Not guilty by reason of insanity was not part of the second trial. And while much of the Crown's evidence was a repeat of the first trial, it was now reinforced with fresh circumstantial evidence that seemed to come out of nowhere. A parade of new witnesses, including neighbours and friends, were introduced to give testimony

that wasn't heard at the first trial. Circumstantial evidence about Guy Paul Moran's odd demeanour and behaviour that the Crown argued was evidence of a guilty conscience. A police officer testified that when they showed up to the Moran House the night Christine Jessop went missing and spoke to Guy Paul's parents, Guy Paul himself stared straight ahead and showed no apparent interest in the conversation. The Crown suggested this was suspicious because an innocent neighbour would have been alarmed. The court would have been alarmed. The court heard from a woman who played in one of the bands that Guy Paul played in. She testified that shortly after Christine's remains were found,

Guy Paul had commented about the tragedy in a way she described as very uncaring, detached or cold. She said it struck her as shocking and abnormal. The Crown argued this was more evidence of a guilty mind. Christine Jessop's friend, who was nine at the time, but 17 years old at the second trial testified for the first time that she and Christine had a couple of conversations with Guy Paul Moran when he was clipping the hedge between their properties.

The girl said she saw him grip the hedge clippers so tightly that his knuckles turned white, which she interpreted as Guy Paul being on edge or angry. The crown used this to paint him in a menacing light. The trial also heard testimony from a neighbour about an encounter with Guy Paul not long after Christine disappeared. That neighbour testified she approached the Moran family's Honda and Guy Paul chased her away from it aggressively. The witness said she got the impression he was worried about something inside the car being discovered. The Crown argued he was right to be concerned, given that so-called incriminatory.

hair and fiber evidence found. The defense accused the police of reading sinister meanings into Guy Paul's actions and those of his family, and of twisting and exaggerating evidence to show that he was guilty. Some of these witnesses didn't mention anything about their observations until after the first trial. For this reason, the defense had objected to this new evidence being admitted, but the judge allowed it. It would later come out that some or all of those witnesses had been influenced by the police's tunnel vision for Guy Paul Moran. This includes Christine's mother Janet, who also testified at the second trial with new details. Janet Jessop testified that the evening after Christine's funeral,

she was at home and heard a man's voice screaming phrases like, Help me, help me, oh God, help me, in a terrified, distraught time. Joan. Janet said that the voice seemed to come from the vicinity of the Moran property next door. The Crown argued that voice belonged to the man who killed Christine, Guy Paul Moran, who was clearly overwhelmed by guilt or fear after the funeral, after realizing that his young victim would be forever buried in the cemetery near their house. According to Guy Paul Moran's defense, the voice likely belonged to Christine's brother, Kenneth Jessop. The defense lawyer argued that Kenny must have been grief-stricken,

since he had previously engaged in sex acts with his younger sister. And now, we get to one of the most devastating parts of the trial from the Jessop family's perspective, as new sensitive evidence was misrepresented, stripped of context and sensationalized by the press. In the lead-up to the second trial, the family heard that Guy Paul Moran's new defense team would be relying on rape myths to argue that Christine Jessop, a nine-year-old little girl, was the instigator and aggressor of her own sexual assault. The apparent strategy was to deflect the spotlight away from Guy Paul Moran.

Instead, it set up a devastating change. of events. The defence was going to argue that Christine may have been asking for it, that the nine-year-old wanted to have sex with a grown man in his car, so she went with whoever it was willingly. When Kenny heard this, he summoned the courage to provide some context he'd been keeping to himself, context that only he could offer to defend and protect his sister. He didn't want to, but he felt he had to.

The Christine Jessop's story documentary gives Ken the space to explain what happened in his own words and dismantle a rumour that haunted his family for decades afterwards. It's clear it was just as difficult for him to speak about all these years later than it was at the second trial. Ken explains that he had been groomed and sexually abused by two older boys starting from when he was seven, and it continued for the next five years, only ending when the Jessop family moved from Toronto up to Queensville.

Kenny says he was manipulated by these older boys to believe that this behavior was normal, that this is how friends act, that friendship is transactional. That's how grooming is often so successful. About two years, into the abuse, the older of the boys abusing him, who would have been about 16 at the time, ordered Kenny to bring his little sister into it. Kenny says he was about nine years old

by this point and Christine was four. The 16-year-old ordered Kenny to simulate sexual positions with her. In the documentary, Ken explains that the older boy soon realized he wasn't getting what he wanted from it and told them to stop. In the five years that Kenny was abused by these two older boys, he says that this was the only time that Christine was involved, and again, it was only simulated. The reason why Kenny chose to disclose this information at the second trial was because he wanted the court to understand that Christine was a child, but she did have some level of understanding about sexual behavior, and she wouldn't have wanted anything to do with it,

little alone with some strange man in his car. Kenny's testimony was meant to counter a harmful argument by the defense, but unfortunately, that's not the story that the media picked up. That night, shocking, sensational headlines started announcing that Kenny Jessup had been sexually abusing his own sister for years. The truth of it was that nine-year-old Kenny and four-year-old Christine were both victims of abuse at the hands of the two older boys. But back in 1991, when the second trial took place, the prevailing societal belief was that most crimes against children were done by strangers. The concept of sexual grooming as a term to describe manipulative behavior

towards children to get them to do something sexual or illegal had only begun to emerge, like the idea that most abusers are already known to the child. Kenny's own victimhood was apparently twisted into brutal, sensational and false headlines that depicted him as the joint abuser along with the two older boys, that it happened for years and only stopped about a year before Christine disappeared. The public were aghast.

Press narratives can ruin lives. This is exactly what happened with Kenny Jessop. The glare of public scrutiny soon fell on the young man already struggling with the loss of his sister, the young man who found her bones at a crime scene that was supposed to have been cleaned up. Kenny Jessop was 22 years old by the time of the second trial, and his mental health had been spiraling for years. As the adopted son, Kenny had already spent years feeling increasingly sidelined as holidays were cancelled and birthdays downplayed. He developed a drinking problem. He was troubled.

In the year before he testified, he'd been charged with arson for setting fire to a couple of motor homes. He would later say that it was an attempt to self-harm. It resulted in him spending a few months in a psychiatric facility. Shortly after his release is when he was called to testify at the second trial of Guy Paul Moran. So Kenny Jessop summoned the courage to disclose deeply personal information about his own victimhood intended to offset defence accusations that his nine-year-old sister went with a stranger because she wanted to have sex in his car. And when this resulted in public humiliation and those headlines,

It was too much. Kenny Jessop attempted suicide. Fortunately, he was not successful, but the damage was immense and lasting. The second trial went for nine months, one of the longest and most expensive in Canadian history, and once again, it was based on nothing but inconclusive forensic evidence and a larger collection of circumstantial evidence

of Guy Paul Moran's odd demeanour and behaviour. There was not one piece of credible evidence that Guy Paul had anything to do with what happened to Christine Jessup. Perhaps that's why the jury took eight days to reach a verdict. But this time, Guy Paul Moran was found guilty of murdering Christine Jessup. When the judge sentenced the 32-year-old to life in prison, Guy Paul was asked if he had any comment to make.

He stated, I am not guilty of this crime. It's a travesty of justice what's happened today. I'm appealing. Bob Jessop told the press that the entire family was relieved to see the verdict. After all, they'd been manipulated to believe that Guy Paul Moran was the perpetrator, that a guilty verdict would bring them closure. The public was not so sure.

After the second trial, many people were convinced the case against Guy Paul Moran didn't add up, and there was a groundswell of support for an appeal. They even formed a group to protest his conviction. That group would later reconfigure itself to be known as the Association and Defense of the Wrongly Convicted, which today is known as Innocence Canada. Even Guy Paul's fellow inmates at the old Kingston Penitentiary believed he was innocent.

It was already known as one of Canada's most notorious maximum security prison. infamous for harsh conditions, dramatic escapes and a long list of violent inmates. When Guy Paul was convicted of the rape and murder of a young child, he was rightly fearful. But luck was in his favour. One of the most influential inmates at Kingston had followed the trial and decided Guy Paul was innocent, according to a later feature for Toronto Life by Malcolm Johnston. That inmate told the others not to tell him. touch him. For the appeal, Guy Paul hired a new legal team led by British lawyer James Lockyer.

The Ontario Court of Appeal announced there were clearly grounds for appeal and ordered Guy Paul to be released on bail. By this point, he'd spent 18 months in prison. His new legal team had been furiously reviewing all the evidence from both trials, and they got stuck on one thing. You might remember that semen had been found on Christine Jessop's underwear. Even if the science at the time could do anything with it, the semen sample was found to have deteriorated from several months of exposure to the elements before the little girl's remains were found. It was thought of as basically useless in terms of forensics. But now that almost ten years had passed, lawyer James Lockyer and his team thought,

it was worth taking another look. They soon discovered there had been significant breakthroughs in DNA testing. The technology had advanced enough that a more sophisticated test could be conducted on that sample. And everyone wanted it tested, from Guy Paul himself, hoping the test would work to prove the sample had nothing to do with him, to the crown, eager for confirmation that the jury got it right the second time. In January of 1995, the headlines blared the news.

Moran exonerated. His appeal was not needed. Three separate scientists had concluded that the DNA from the sperm sample could not have originated from Guy Paul Moran. Now 35 years old, he told the press that it was a very good day thanks to DNA. Quote, I'm just in heaven. I'm happy.

I'm free. The Crown offered him its deepest regret. The Jessips were anguished by the news. They'd spent years and years being convinced that Guy Paul Moran was the killer. Kenny Jessop only had one question for police. Who killed his little sister? Bob Jessop told the Toronto star he was not convinced by this DNA test and would only be satisfied if DNA.

A-testing could also be conducted on the hair found in the Moran family Honda. This was not an uncommon attitude. Some members of the public desperately wanted someone to be brought to justice for Christine Jessop's murder, and Guy Paul Moran's exoneration left a big void, with no one else to step into it. That same year, the Ontario government launched what became known as the Kaufman inquiry. It was a full public review into how the Christine Jessop case had gone so catastrophically wrong, from the conduct of the police to the crown prosecution, to the forensic experts of the day whose testimony somehow helped convict an innocent man.

It took almost three years to complete the inquiry and the report, and Commissioner Fred Kaufman made one thing clear. He didn't believe that anyone, police, or Crown ever set out to intentionally frame Guy Paul Moran for the murder of Christine Jessop. But the evidence was clear that they instead developed a staggering tunnel vision and the belief that Guy Paul was guilty. The inquiry found that the backdrop was a system and culture the rewards closing a case over getting it right. Careers may have hinged on getting the right result. This, of course, led to a lack of objectivity and serious errors in judgment. And it wasn't just the tunnel vision. More examples of generally, seriously sloppy police work came to light as a

result of this inquiry. Remember those three alternative suspects that came up in the first six months of the investigation? There was Paul, the teenager who worked not far from Queensville, seen power washing a truck with industrial cleaner just days after Christine disappeared. Police glanced at the truck and didn't see any blood, but never investigated it further. Then there was Mike, the troubled teen who worked at the local Queensville Cemetery near the Jessop's farmhouse and had prior sexual assault offences. His own sister suspected him in relation to the Christine Jessop case, but the police did not close this lead either.

Then there was Tom, the man accused by his estranged wife of child abuse and violent threats, who sometimes drove through Queensville. The police asked him to take a polygraph, which he passed. Eventually, each of these suspects were properly cleared, but not by the police. They were too hung up on Guy Paul Moran. It took his own defense. team led by Clayton Ruby to uncover these suspect leads and clear them. Among the recommendations in the Kaufman report were that police should receive more training

about the use of polygraphs and criminal profiling and that they understand they are only investigative tools, not a beacon of truth. The report also pointed out how police influence people to change their stories so they fit with Guy Paul Moran being the perpetrator, After his exoneration, the police actually blamed Janet Jessop for Guy Paul being a suspect in the first place, when they were the ones that asked her for a list of people she thought were weird. Guy Paul wasn't even the first name on that list. There was a recommendation for all suspect interviews to be recorded in a clear and consistent system for police notebooks. As you'll recall, one sergeant had been keeping.

duplicate notebooks, one with all the evidence against Guy Paul Moran, and a second secret one, where he noted everything else. There were recommendations around proper handling, processing, and storing of evidence to avoid the potential for cross-contamination and the dangers of junk science. The so-called forensic expert witnesses needed reminding that they were working to challenge or disprove a hypothesis rather than prove one. And in cases involving missing persons, especially missing children, officers need to act early as though a crime may have occurred to preserve every potential piece of evidence. This was in reference to the number of people allowed to enter the Jessop family home that night because the police did not consider it a potential crime

scene. And there were more problems at the site where Christine's remains were found that clearly was a crime scene. There was no protection of the site. It wasn't sealed off. When Christine's remains were discovered, it was a very cold, snowy New Year's Eve, and the police decided to leave the remains there overnight and transport them the following day. According to the Kaufman report, they brought in hair dryers and leaf blowers to try and defrost the ground, which interfered with the forensic evidence. When parts of the remains wouldn't budge and the ground was too hard, the police used garden trowls and shovels they had in the back of their cars to dig, and they didn't get all of the remains, leaving some tiny bones there for

Christine's brother Kenny to find, and a series of dirty styrofoam coffee cups for him to put those bones in. There was the debacle with the cigarette butt found at the scene, which turned out to be another case of smoke and mirrors. And finally, the report warned about the dangers of demeanor evidence, judging a person's guilt or honesty based on how they appear or behave rather than on actual facts. In Guy Paul Moran's case, police and prosecutors relied heavily on their impressions of him, deciding he seemed odd, flat or unemotional, and they treated those observations as meaningful. And as you'll recall, he didn't search for Christine or attend her funeral, which was considered evidence of a guilty conscience. But demeanor is an unreliable indicator of truth. People

under stress, people with different personalities or cultural backgrounds, or people simply terrified of being wrongfully accused, can appear nervous, detached or awkward. None of that, on its own, reflects guilt. Commissioner Kaufman also underscored the duty of Crown prosecutors. They must never present evidence they reasonably believe to be untrue, and they too must guard against tunnel vision. In the final words of his report, Culfman summed it up bluntly, quote, An innocent person was convicted of a heinous crime he did not commit. Science helped convict him. Science exonerated him. The Culfman inquiry served as a cornerstone for reforms aimed at preventing future miscarriages of justice

and led to significant changes in the Canadian justice system. There was a concerted effort to continue DNA testing to find the real killer. Toronto Police took over the case from the Durham Police and launched a task force to reinvestigate, conducting more interviews and collecting and comparing more DNA samples. A wide net was cast and more than 300 potential suspects were reportedly ruled out. No one matched. The task force disbanded, and now it was the waiting game.

Waiting for new information that could lead to a new suspect, that could lead to a new DNA comparison, it seemed like a long shot. Every year, Janet Jessop would visit Christine's grave at Queen'sville Cemetery. She would tidy the ground, keeping it neat and cared for. In a later interview for York region, Janet described feeling confused, and disoriented in those early days, months and years. While time had dulled the pain, it never erased it. And flickers of memories of Christine's short life still came rushing back, getting ready for school, playing baseball, going to brownies. But the memories weren't always

comforting. Janet often found herself haunted by one question that time could never soften, whether Christine had known pain in those final moments of her life. Over the years, the Toronto Police issued more public pleas for information. Nothing brought answers. But in 2019, a series of events started that would lead to a huge breakthrough. A Toronto homicide detective named Steve Smith attended a course that introduced him to an emerging forensic technique called genetic genealogy. He didn't know much about it, except that the technique had just cracked one of the biggest unsolved coal cases in American history. That

perpetrator had been known as the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist, the original Night Stalker, and later the Golden State Killer. He was a burglar, stalker, peeper, rapist and killer, responsible for a reign of terror across California in the 70s and 80s. His victims ranged from teenage girls to married couples asleep in their home, and he was known to have broken into more than 120 houses, raped more than 45 women, and murdered 12 people. And after decades of mystery, investigators used this new genetic genealogy technique to solve the cake.

leading to the arrest of a former police officer named Joseph James DiAngelo Jr. The breakthrough made headlines around the world and brought long-awaited relief to his many victims, their families and their communities. In Toronto, Detective Sergeant Steve Smith was greatly interested in this new technique. It hadn't been used in Canada yet, and he was fresh on the cold case team and wanted to make a deal. difference. Genetic genealogy combines DNA testing with old-fashioned family tree research. It's an option when there's DNA from a crime scene that doesn't match anyone in the criminal database,

and there's no one else to compare it to because all other leads have gone cold. Here's how it works. Investigators upload the mystery DNA profile to public genealogy databases, the same kind people use to learn about their ancestry. They're looking for genetic matches, that is, distant relatives of the perpetrator who share part of the same DNA. When they find that match, that's when the painstaking work begins.

Genealogists have to trace family trees using public records like birth and marriage certificates, by working backward through generations, clearing each person and the same person, the family tree, they can narrow down the pool of possible suspects using classic investigative techniques until only one person fits. The next step is to obtain DNA from that person and compare it to the original DNA from the case to confirm the match. The process for the genetic genealogy technique is painstaking, difficult and often frustrating, but the payoff can be huge. It clearly worked on a

decades-old cold case from California that once seemed unsolvable. Detective Sergeant Steve Smith chose the Christine Jessop case as the first time the technique would be used in Canada. It all circled around that DNA sample on her underwear that was used to clear Guy Paul Moran. After the distant genetic matches were found, a team of investigators and genealogy specialists spent the best part of a year combing through burying, records, birth records, town registers, social media and more to track the DNA down to two family trees. Then one. Then it was down to two people. And finally, one. Police traced the man's past addresses and entered them into the system to see if any connected to the original investigation.

There was a hit. The man had once lived in a townhouse near the Toronto. Zoo, and that address happened to be listed in one of the police notebooks from 1984. In October of 2020, the Toronto Police held a press conference and streamed it live due to immense public interest. This is the Chief of Police, Jim Raymer. It was October 3, 1984, when 9-year-old Christine Jessup went missing from her home in Queensville, Ontario. She was described as a girl who loved life, her family, school, and sports. Her face, as seen here today, was on every television set and every newspaper. On Friday, October 9th, 2020, we positively confirmed the identification of the person

responsible for the DNA sample found on Christine's underwear. Calvin Hoover of Toronto, Ontario, was 28 years old in 1984. He was known to the Jessup family at the time of Christine's disappearance. You might remember that Janet Jessop had a friend called Heather Hoover, who lived with her family near the Toronto Zoo. They knew each other because Heather worked at the same company as Bob Jessop, and so did her husband. He died in 2015.

However, if he were alive today, the Toronto Police Service would arrest Calvin Hoover for the murder of Christine Jessa. Today's announcement is only the first very important answer in this ongoing investigation. And we are asking for the public's help as we look for information about Calvin Hoover in an effort to create a timeline of his whereabouts and the last moments of Christine's life. A photo of Calvin Hoover was shown dating back to the late 1990s. He had short, dark hair and wore large framed glasses on his thin face that had prominent front teeth. He was wearing a collared shirt and had a sullen look on his face. The police urged the public to contact them if the photo jogged any memory about the events

surrounding Christine Jessup's disappearance. At the time, Calvin Hoover was a 28-year-old tradesman from Scarborough, a suburb of the greater Toronto area, and he was married to Heather Hoover. They had four children, their two sons, and Heather's two sons from a previous relationship. Calvin had been steadily employed, and he had no criminal record. There was no indication that he harbored interests that might result. in him committing such a heinous crime against a child. But he was definitely troubled by something. He often suffered bouts of depression and anxiety

and had a serious problem with drinking, partying and gambling, according to a 2021 feature for Toronto Life by Malcolm Johnson. Quote, He had a certain charisma that could envelop the room, but he was also profoundly selfish, concerned with his own fulfillment to the exclusion of just about everything else. While generally amiable to strangers and co-workers, he possessed a nasty, vindictive streak that he would often unleash on those who knew him best.

Calvin and Heather Hoover worked at the same company that provided telephone wiring for businesses across the GTA. Heather was a receptionist and dispatcher, and Calvin was on the road doing installations. Christine Jessop's father, Bob, worked at the same company as the lead installer. Soon, both families were firm friends. Even though there was 50 kilometers between them, they often traveled to each other's homes to socialize. Heather Hoover became close friends with Janet Jessop. They babysat each other's children. When Bob Jessop was sentenced to prison time for fraud just weeks before Christine disappeared, Janet leaned on Heather for support. The police discovered that two days before Christine went missing, Janet drove the two kids

down to Toronto to visit the Hoover family for dinner. One of the topics of conversation was that Janet was taking Kenny to a dentist appointment in Toronto and thought they'd stop off at the prison to visit his father before that. Janet recounted her feeling that Christine was just too young to see her dad there, so she'd go to school instead. She discussed the fact that Christine would be by herself for a little while after school until they returned, but she was, of course, responsible and trustworthy. Calvin Hoover likely overheard this conversation.

Evidently, he decided this was an opportunity he had to take. advantage of and likely started planning. The morning of October 3rd, 1984, Janet phoned Heather Hoover, who could hear Christine in the background, frustrated and crying because she couldn't go to the jail with them and had to go to school instead. Heather hung up the phone. It's possible she mentioned this in passing to her husband. Christine calmed down and got on the school bus. and Janet and Kenneth drove to Toronto for a prison visit and a dentist appointment. The police believed that Calvin Hoover drove to Queensville in the afternoon

and was most likely waiting at the house at 3.50pm when Christine got off the bus. 20 minutes later at 4.10 p.m., Janet and Ken arrived home as expected to find Christine was not there. Her bike was lying on the ground, which stood out because she was always careful to prop it upright. Her school bag and jacket were neatly hung on a hook higher than she could reach, and the family's beagle was acting strangely, nervous and guilty. Christine already knew Calvin Hoover as a trusted family friend. He might have used a ruse to entice her into the car willingly, like the police once believed Guy Paul Moran did.

After all, Calvin Hoover knew the little girl desperately wanted to see her father in prison and show him her new recorder. He might have told her he'd been sent to pick her up as a surprise for her father and her family. He might have told her something bad happened to her mother and that she needed to hurry with him. Christine wouldn't have suspected a thing, and Calvin could have got her in his car quickly without her. her alerting anyone with screams. It's also possible that Calvin was in such a rush with the

tight window of time that he did away with any attempt at a ruse and just used force to get the tiny nine-year-old into his car. Whatever happened, none of the locals heard a thing. They did see something, though. You'll remember police heard about a car seen in the village of Queensville the day of Christine's abduction that did not belong to any locals. It was described as a Silver Datson with a rounded roof. Police learned that at that time, Calvin Hoover drove a grey Pontiac Phoenix, which closely resembled the Silver Datson. The police believed the crime involved organisation and planning, and Calvin Hoover likely had

already decided his next destination, Sunderland. in the Durham region about 50 kilometres away, nowhere near Queensville where the Jessips lived, and nowhere near the Toronto Zoo where the Hoovers lived. So why Sunderland? In the months after the Toronto Police made the Calvin Hoover announcement, the media reported that the man had a friend in high school who lived in the Sunderland area,

which at the time was known for country roads, farmland and forests. He and his friend reportedly met often to explore the area and go camping. He was very familiar with it. Another more compelling link was revealed in the Christine Jessop's story documentary. Detective Steve Smith describes a previously unpublicized theory. The police discovered that in 1984, Calvin Hoover's family owned a secluded cabin in that area near Sunderland, and it was believed that Hoover might have driven Christine to that cabin

and viciously attacked her there. After taking out all his apparent internalized rage on the tiny little girl, he drove her body about five kilometers away from the cabin and left it there. The filmmakers say they were stunned because it was the first time they'd heard the full outline of this theory. And the reason it's only a police theory is, because by the time police identified Hoover in 2020 and learned about the cabin, it had long since been demolished and redeveloped into a housing estate.

The day after Christine's disappearance, Heather Hoover rushed to Queensville to console her friend Janet and help where she could. She was interviewed by a York region police detective while there. She said she said she, she'd been at work in Toronto the day of Christine's disappearance, and her husband Calvin had been working all day too. Heather Hoover answered more questions patiently, but then apologised and said she had to return to Toronto to tend to her four kids and her husband. Calvin Hoover helped search for Christine and stayed close to the investigation, but he was never questioned by police. If they had, they might have discovered that his work

installing phone wiring required him to be on the road, driving around to different businesses. And this was in 1984. He had the freedom to get around that he might not have today with GPS histories and CCTV cameras. Heather would say that he would occasionally leave for hours at a time during the day and at night. After Christine's remains were found, Calvin Hoover attended her funeral with the family and comforted his wife as she mourned. When Durham Police took over the investigation and asked Janet Jessup for a list of weird people, we don't know who else was on that list, but Calvin Hoover was not.

The investigators soon developed tunnel vision for Guy Paul Moran and never looked at Hoover again. Now, police believe that Calvin was following the investigation and had likely immersed himself in the media coverage as Guy Paul Moran was arrested, found not guilty, and then a new trial was ordered on appeal. The Hoover family had long since lost touch with the Jessop family. Calvin Hoover declared bankruptcy. Things got worse over the following four years, as Guy Paul Moran was tried again, found guilty, then announced an appeal. In 1995, when Guy Paul Moran was finally exonerated through

DNA, Calvin Hoover's life began to unravel rapidly. In hindsight, police believed the news shook him deeply. He would have realized how careless had been by leaving his DNA, and he likely sensed it was only a matter of time before police came knocking on his door. Calvin often often Calvin often told his wife and kids he was heading to work, but instead spent his days drinking in local pubs. Police later said that after the exoneration of Guy Paul Moran, his drinking, gambling and cocaine use all intensified, along with a steady decline in his mental health. Calvin's marriage to Heather started falling apart, and he drifted further into addiction and instability. He reportedly crashed his truck while drunk driving and had his driver's license

taken away for a year. That was the final straw for Heather. She left him and took the four children with her. The following year, 1997, they were divorced. By 2003, Calvin Hoover had married again. He met a woman named Joanne, who shared his interest in gambling, and they got married in Las Vegas. It appears they had a pretty happy marriage until Joanne passed away of natural causes six years later. The following year 2010, Calvin reportedly started telling people he was contemplating suicide. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In 2014, he crashed his truck and what police believed was an attempted suicide by motor vehicle. By this, point, he was described as a sad, anxious, isolated man who had frequent panic attacks.

In 2015, he died by suicide in his home, knowing that one of his sons who lived with him would return home to discover his body. He'd stuck a post-it note to the mirror saying, Hope you all have a good life. Five years later, when Polaroid, Police used genetic genealogy to pinpoint Calvin Hoover as the perpetrator. It was incredibly disappointing to learn that he had passed away. He would never be brought to justice, and all opportunities to get answers from him were lost. But it also posed another problem.

To confirm that it really was Calvin Hoover, police needed to compare the DNA sample to his DNA, and he'd been dead for a few years. Fortunately, during his autopsy, two vials of blood had been preserved. For the first time in Canada, police applied for a DNA warrant based on genetic genealogy. Within two weeks, police learned it was a match, although the official verbiage is that Calvin Hoover could not be excluded as the source of the DNA. Statistically, it was three trillion times more likely that the DNA,

DNA belonged to Hoover than to anyone else. And remember that dark hair caught in Christine's necklace, that belonged to Calvin Hoover as well. When police told the Jessop family a match was confirmed to Calvin Hoover, their reaction said it all. We told you it was someone we knew. 36 years had passed. Janet Jessop didn't remember Calvin Hoover very well, only.

that he was a work colleague of her husband Bob Jessop. She did remember Heather as a good friend. Bob said he vaguely remembered Calvin Hoover from work, but both of them said they never suspected him, not once. In fact, they both thought they would die without knowing who was responsible. When the police contacted Heather Hoover to let her know that her ex-husband and the father of two of her children, was also the one who abducted, raped and murdered little Christine Jessop.

She was devastated and shocked. In an exclusive interview with Madeline McNair for CBC News, Heather said in all the years they were together, he never showed any indication he was capable of anything like that. She couldn't understand how someone could do what he did. Heather said she also wonders why the police didn't question Calvin at the time. She believed he was working that day, but they never actually checked out his alibi. And when thinking about the years that passed after that,

Heather struggled to reconcile the fact that the person who continued to console and support her as she tried to keep Christine's memory alive could be the same person who actually killed her. Quote, He watched me go to her gravesite for ten years. It's mind-boggling. I didn't know. this man. Heather described the last few years of their marriage as hell for her and the kids as Calvin became moody and withdrawn. Quote, he was never the father he should have been.

When it was discovered that Calvin Hoover was the perpetrator, Guy Paul Moran was living quietly with his wife and two sons. He had developed a great distrust for police. So when the officers showed up to give him the news, he couldn't help but feel afraid and paranoid. Then he couldn't believe it. He had no idea who Calvin Hoover was and had never heard his name before. Guy Paul Moran's wrongful conviction had become a landmark example of how police tunnel vision, unreliable evidence and various systemic failings can lead to the conviction of an innocent person. Guy Paul Moran had been robbed of over 10 years of his life,

but remained remarkably philosophical and upbeat, determined to get on with his life. In the years since his exoneration, he had accepted a $1.2 million settlement from the Ontario government, and he gave half of it to his parents. But life had not been easy. Work was hard to find for a man once accused of murder. He encountered people who did not want their children associating with his children just in case.

Eventually, the family moved to the country, seeking peace after years of public scrutiny. Guy Paul trained as a piano technician. In 2024, he testified at a Senate committee in Ottawa about a bill related to possible wrongful convictions, saying that he recently had to give someone his name. The person commented that it wasn't a good name to have. Guy Paul asked, why? And the person replied, because he's a killer. That person obviously did not know that they were speaking to the Guy Paul Moran,

the one who had been completely cleared by definitive DNA. Even though the murder of Christine Jessup is solved, there's a number of questions that remain. One, haunts investigators. Could Calvin Hoover really have raped and murdered a child once out of nowhere, then never again? He spent many years working as a cable installer and was known to travel for work, across the province and internationally for training. And the fact that he often travelled alone suggested it was possible there were other victims.

But despite his DNA being compared to databases in Canada, the US and the UK, no other matches have ever been found. Janet Jessup passed away in March of 2024. Ken waited until October the 3rd of that year to bury his mother next to his sister. It was the 40th anniversary of Christine's disappearance. Ken describes this decision as another step in his healing journey. But perhaps the greatest therapy he ever had, he said, was filming the documentary The Christine Jessop's story.

Ken told the Fort Erie Observer that although he was nervous when his interviews began, quote, Then I started talking and it was like an intensive therapy session. I was on camera for five days. It had all been buried for so long. Ken said that he walked away lighter, that for the first time, there was no reason to look back anymore.

He describes it as an ugly story that will leave you with a sense of hope. Quote, It's how my mother and I, against all odds, survived. Because the Christine Jessup's story documentary was in development for many years, Before the police identified Kelvin Hoover as the killer, it captures Kenny and Janet's emotional journey

as they waited for answers they thought might never come and their painful relief when they finally learned the truth. Bob Jessop did not participate in the documentary. He passed away in May of 2025. His obituary says he is pre-deceased by his daughter, Christine Jessop. The fact that the obituary doesn't mention Ken at all seems in line with Ken's own life experience. He always had the sense that his dad had wished it was him and not Christine, that he'd never felt

more adopted as when his dad wanted him to live with other families during that time. He didn't want him to be around and that sort of feeling of utter sadness and aloneness that comes from him telling like that portion of the story. I had the opportunity to interview an executive producer of the Christine Jessop's story, Joe Virgo, who built a relationship with Ken and Janet over the years and had some interesting behind-the-scenes insights to share. His life just evolved into addiction, and it was awful,

but his mum was there all the time. Bob and Janet split up quite soon after the trials and everything. And Bob went on to marry again and wasn't really in their lives very much after that. But Janet was there all the time. When he called from jail after being arrested yet again, she was there for him. She never turned her back on him. And when she died and he'd been sober for a while, she said that she was proud of him. And he said that her saying, those words to him made him feel strong enough to stay sober for the rest of his life, which was amazing, because for him that was, you know, a lifelong battle. He'd been sober, I think, for about a year

and a half by the time we interviewed with him. And he's still in good shape now. And he has a business that he runs. He, like, transfers pictures onto wood. He carves wood. He's at farmer's markets. He's selling his stuff. He's thriving in the best way that he can be. He has a lie. He has a life. He has girlfriends. He has a lovely dog who's just, she's a constant companion. We all fell in love with her. He's just a lovely person and he deserves peace. And I think that's where he is now. I asked Joe Virgo about the massive weight of responsibility when you're telling these kinds of stories. For me as an executive producer on this show, it was really important to stay with Christine throughout it.

Keep saying her name to recognise this was her story and although it had massive impacts, this was Christine and she was nine. She was every little girl that you know who's a little bit spicy and a little bit small for her age and I know that she probably had a little chipmuck laugh that came out really high and fast.

And from the love that all of her friends and family and everyone who met her still describe her with today, you just got this sense that you knew who she was as a little girl. It was really important to constantly bring it back to her. And I think Ken does a really nice job of that as well, her brother. He constantly remembers her as his little sister, Christine. And that's obviously who she'll always be. Thanks for listening.

This series has been pieced together from court documents, the Culfman Inquiry Report, and the news archives. For the full list of sources and anything else you want to know, visit canadian truecrime.ca. The Christine Jessop's story is available on Crave. Executive producer Joe Virgo has lived in Toronto longer than I have, but she started her career in British television, and when she was invited to work in Canada, she basically never left. She told me about a big lesson she learned in the UK

that informs everything else she's worked on since. I worked on a kids show for the BBC, and it was called Animals at Work, and we would travel crews all over the world filming animals that had jobs. And the BBC had recently had someone, a production company produced for them, a documentary about the Queen. And the way the trailer was cut for the documentary, it looked like the Queen walked into a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz and then stormed out. And the production company had cut it out of order so that when the Queen was walking in, she was walking in very fast because she was late, but they cut it to be afterwards so it looked like she was storming out. And after that, the BBC wouldn't let you cut anything out of order. So everything that you shot

had to be cut in the same timeline. But it meant that for our children's TV show, if we were showing a day in the life of a guinea pig, you better believe we were showing breakfast, not as dinner, but as breakfast. And if he pooped after breakfast, that's when he pooped. He didn't poop at any other time in the day. So it was, it was hilarious, but it was a really interesting learning curve for me to be truthful in how I tell my stories. And that's what was absolutely paramount in Christine's story, was not only constantly bringing the story back to Christine and naming her, she's not the victim, she's not, you know, the deceased, she is Christine, she is a person, she is remembered and she is still loved fiercely by her family and

friends. It's important that people feel for Christine because they need to understand that what happened to her, even though she was this tiny little girl from a village that you've never heard of in Ontario, her life really mattered and it continues to matter. The span of the story is four times as old as she is and we're still speaking her name. Special thanks to Joe Virgo. Canadian True Crime donates monthly to those facing injustice. For the next few months, we'll be donating to the Sexual Assault Center of Kingston, who was supporting an unprecedented 28 victim complainants

involved in the ongoing sex trafficking trial of Michael Hamer of Kingston. More to come. Visit Canadian Truecrime.ca.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Audio editing was by Crosby Audio and Eric Crosby voiced the disclaimer. Our senior producer is Lindsay Eldridge. Research, writing, narration and sound design was by me and the theme songs were composed by We Talk of Dreams. I'll be back soon with another Canadian true crime episode.

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