Crime Junkie - CONSPIRACY: Theresa Allore

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

When Theresa Allore vanishes from her college campus in Quebec, Canada, in 1978, local police dismiss her as runaway and force her family to start their own investigation that would span across 45 years. Over the decades, they piece together evidence and uncover an array of conspiracies from a potential serial killer on the prowl to the possibility of corrupt law enforcement.You can visit TheresaAllore.com to learn more about John Allore’s investigation into his sister’s death and it is also where you can find Johns podcast, Who Killed Theresa and his book, Wish You Were Here. Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/ to view the current membership options and policies.Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/conspiracy-theresa-allore/

Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Brett. And the story I have for you today is about a young woman who seems to just disappear without a trace. Even when her body is discovered, her family is left on their own to do something that they should never have to do. Find out how their loved one died and track down who might be responsible. This is the story of Teresa Allure. Bob and Marilyn Allure are at their home in St. John, New Brunswick when they get a call from their son, Andre. He's a student at Champlain College, but he's not calling to say hi or check in with his parents.

He's calling to tell them that his sister Teresa is missing. 19-year-old Teresa is also a student at the same college, and Andre tells his parents that she hasn't been seen by her friends since Friday, November 3rd. And it's now November 10. And this whole time, no one has been able to get in contact with her. So she's been gone a week and Andre's just now contacting their parents? Yeah, but that's because Andre himself had only just learned that Teresa was missing. Like, I mean, we're talking earlier that day himself. He and his sister don't really run in the same social circles, so he had no idea that something was wrong until her friends contacted him. And mind you, this whole thing is going down in 1978, so people aren't in constant contact like we might be now.

So he relays everything that he's learned so far to Bob and Marilyn. That last Friday, most of Teresa's friends had left to go out of town for the weekend, but she had stayed behind to catch up on some homework. By the time her friends got back on Sunday, no one could get in touch with her, but they weren't immediately worried. According to a book written by Teresa's younger brother John and Patricia Pearson titled Wish You Were Here, they all consider themselves adults, so they think, you know, Teresa can do what she wants. This includes even missing class. So they're thinking like if they got her family involved, that might get her in trouble. But as the week went on, their concern for her started to ramp up. By Wednesday, they had searched her room and her on-campus locker, but they didn't find any sign of her.

Her purse was gone, but other bags like her suitcase were all still accounted for. And by Friday, with still no word, that's when they decided to call her childhood best friend who lives in Montreal about an hour and a half away, basically just to see if her best friend knew anything. But the friend was actually already concerned about her too, because she and Teresa did stay in pretty regular contact and she hadn't heard from her all week. So with that, that's when the group finally decided to sound the alarm to Andre, who's now notifying his parents. Now, Bob and Marilyn are concerned, but before they completely freak out, they check in with Teresa's boyfriend, this guy named Vlad. He lives more than 38 hours across the country in Alberta, and they're thinking that she might be staying with him. But whatever spark of hope they had left is quickly extinguished when Vlad tells them that he hasn't seen Teresa either.

So Bob and Marilyn rush to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Office in St. John to report Teresa missing. They take the report, but since Teresa went missing in Lenoxville, they tell her parents that her case is actually going to be transferred to the police department up there. But as they're telling them this, they also give them an eerie warning. They won't get any help from the police in Quebec. That feels cryptic and definitely not what you want to hear right now. What do they even mean? Well, the Alors don't know, and I don't think the police in St. John really elaborate. But with that warning in the back of their minds, Bob and Marilyn head to Lenoxville the next day. And now, fortunately, when they arrive, the police there say that they've already been investigating for the past 24 hours, like since they got the report.

So at first, it seems like maybe they are going to help. They quickly briefed the Alors on everything that they have done for the last day. And according to reporting by Anna Fudakowska for the Sherbrook Record, that includes interviewing Teresa's friends. From what they can piece together, the last time anyone actually spoke with Teresa was around 6 p.m. on Friday, November 3rd in the college's dining hall. Two girls who lived directly across from Teresa said that they briefly chatted with her there. They like made some plans to meet her in their dorm around 9 p.m. that night to just like listen to some new records. A few minutes later, the girls left and they got on a school shuttle to head to the dorms, which are located 10 miles south in a completely different town, this town of Compton, hence the shuttle. Right. But they say that Teresa didn't get on the bus with them, and the last time they saw her, she was walking down the street alone. That night, according to what the girls told the officers, they say that they left their door open so that they had a clear view of Teresa's room, but they never saw her.

Now, when Bob and Marilyn hear that Teresa had been walking down the street all by herself, they're immediately worried, because that probably meant that she'd been hitchhiking. Teresa had actually complained to them before that the school's public transit system was just unreliable, so instead she'd hitchhiked through the rural countryside. I'm sorry, hitchhiking was more reliable than public transport? That's how bad it was, I guess. Wow. But the police say that they already searched the highway between the two towns and they didn't find anything, so it's not like she was in an accident or maybe like hit accidentally, like nothing in between. But that being said, they do mention something that two hunters claimed to have found the day after Teresa was last seen. Apparently, they came across a neatly folded pile of women's clothing, including dark corduroy slacks and a t-shirt.

Now, this pile was in a wooded area west of Lenoxville in Compton. My source material kind of varies on the exact location. Some say it was like on a tree stump or a log, but either way, police say that they searched the area where the clothes were found and they didn't find anything. So they basically tell the allures that they've done all they can. So was it Teresa's clothing? They don't really even say. I guess they say that they believe it's her clothing, but they still don't know what she was last seen in, so they can't be certain. Okay, and they're saying that this is all that they can do.

And by all they mean what? Driving up and down the highway a couple times and taking this report from some hunters? They've only been at this for like 24 hours. What about searching her dorm or the area around the dining hall or interviewing people in the town who might have seen her walk by? I don't know, anything else? Yeah, I mean, her parents are understandably confused because same as you, there's like, you know, there's definitely more that can be done. Yeah. But when they press police on the matter, they get a shocking answer.

Officers basically tell them that they don't need to investigate any further because they know who's to blame for Teresa's disappearance. And that's Teresa herself. They tell Bob and Marilyn that they are convinced that Teresa was living a double life and was actually a troubled teen struggling with substance abuse. According to more reporting in the Sherbrook record, they tell her family that she was running around with the wrong crowd. She was possibly a sex worker. And one of the officers even theorizes that she could have gotten pregnant and then run away to hide it. How can you just come up with that? Like, where is all this coming from?

And also, like, if she got pregnant, why is she taking off her clothes and folding them on a stump? Like, it's not even adding up. Right. That doesn't make sense for all of these things to also be true. Right. But even again, all these claims that they're making about Teresa don't make any sense. Bob and Marilyn have no idea where this is coming from. This isn't the Teresa that they know.

But they're thinking, you know, even if she was struggling with something, okay, you know, say we're in the dark. They're not even like completely against the idea. They're like, okay, even if she's in trouble. It's still their daughter and she's still missing. She's still missing. Exactly. Like, none of these things are an excuse to not look for her. So they turn to the school administration for support, hoping that someone there is going to have some answers.

But they just get more frustrated because the college director tells them that he thinks Teresa disappeared because she was, quote, unquote, disturbed and possibly even a lesbian. Which, with this being the 70s, just, I mean, the worst thing you could be. It's ridiculous. But how does this guy know any of this? It seems to be coming out of thin air. I have no idea. From what I can find in my research, there isn't a shred of evidence to back up any of these theories.

So of course, Bob and Marilyn's first reaction is just complete disgust and anger. I mean, same in case you can't tell. But the local police aren't changing their minds and their investigation comes to a grinding halt. So the allures turn to the Quebec Provincial Police, or the QPP, who have jurisdiction over the municipal departments. But they also dismiss Teresa's case and say that they won't get involved unless there is a body. Okay. Well, I can see what the RCMP officer meant about the police in Quebec. They definitely aren't doing their jobs, at least to their fullest capability.

Also, that's really disturbing how they apparently kind of hold this reputation. Yeah, I mean, for all the other departments to know that, and I can't imagine even trying to send a family for help and be like, but you're not going to get any good luck. Yeah. And the allures come to the gut-wrenching realization that they are on their own. But rather than sit and wait for help to come, they decide to take the investigation into their own hands. Throughout the rest of November, the family spends their time knocking on doors, searching local monasteries and mental hospitals just in case police's allegations are true.

And they're doing everything they can to spread the word that Teresa is missing. But each and every search is a dead end. And by the end of the month, they realize that they can't do this without professional help. So that's when they hire a private investigator, a guy named Robert Bulek. And he gets to work taking the steps that police should have been taking all along. Now, Canada's winter season is too far along to conduct a proper search of the countryside. Robert does search Teresa's door, which as far as I can tell hasn't been touched since she disappeared. Now, he tells Bob that he didn't find anything significant,

but Teresa's wallet and several pieces of jewelry like a watch and a necklace and a ring and a pair of earrings appear to be missing. He also did the job of re-interviewing her friends. And from those interviews, he learns that Teresa was wearing that missing jewelry the last time she was seen. She was also wearing black cloth shoes, blue corduroy pants, a white t-shirt, a long beige sweater, and a green scarf. So that clothing that the hunters found in the woods really could have been Teresa's. Yeah, I mean, the pants and the t-shirt are both a really close match to the description that those hunters gave police. So in addition to kind of confirming that, at least in theory, those interviews with Teresa's friends also confirmed something else that Bob in Maryland suspected from the beginning.

She wasn't struggling with substance abuse or even hanging out with any shady characters. Now, her friends said that she did occasionally smoke weed, but she wasn't some out of control party animal, or like, again, even doing sex work on the side to pay for some kind of drug habit. Now, Robert also told the Allures that Teresa had tried cocaine once, but nothing in my source material could clarify how he got that information since her friends never made statements to that effect. This is all reassuring to hear, but none of Robert's updates are the groundbreaking leads that the Allures were hoping for. That is, until a few days later, when they get a call from Robert about a sighting of Teresa after she left the dining hall on November 3rd. Robert says that one of Teresa's friends saw her on the main staircase of their residence hall around 9 p.m.

This would have been three hours after she was last seen walking down the road. According to John and Patricia's book, this friend had asked Teresa if she was going anywhere that weekend, and Teresa said no, she had too much homework, and that's when the two parted ways. So do we know where she was in that three hour gap? No, I mean, at least we can't be 100% sure. But based on the timing, they kind of have a theory. They think that Teresa probably walked all the way from campus to the residence hall. It is a 10 mile trip that, again, if she would have taken the bus, takes about 13 minutes.

But walking that distance would take students about three hours. So again, the working theory is that she either was trying to hitchhike and just couldn't get a ride, or she just planned on walking because she wanted to walk, whatever. Okay, so if this is true, and she makes it all the way to the steps of her dorm, then something happened right then and there, because we know she never made it into her room. Well, it seems like it. No one knows where she went. Like the girl Robert talked to couldn't tell if Teresa was like going up the stairs or going down the stairs.

And then she didn't see which way she went after their conversation ended either. I mean, we know she had to have left the dorm sometime after 9pm, but no one knows if she was with anyone or what time she left. I mean, it's another piece of the puzzle that they have now. It's just not the piece that they needed. And honestly, it almost brings up more questions. Now, as the year comes to an end, Robert tells Bob in Maryland that he has run out of leads to follow. And eventually, the Allures have to return home to St. John where they just watch

as the months tick by with no progress and no sign of their daughter. It's not until Saturday, April 14th of 1979, while they're visiting family in Ontario that they get a call. But when Bob picks up that call, he realizes it's the police in Lenoxville on the other end. And his heart drops into his stomach as he listens to an officer tell him that his worst fear has come true. They think that they found Teresa's body. You see, the officer says that the day before, a local hunter had been setting up muskrat traps along the edge of this like corn field about two minutes from the heart of Compton. And that's when he noticed something floating in the shallow water of this short culvert.

And at first he thought it was a mannequin. Oh, buddy. Yeah, of course, we know it wasn't. It was the body of a young woman wearing nothing but a bra and underwear. Investigators tell the Allures that when they got to the scene, they were certain that they had found Teresa because the woman had on the same jewelry that matched the stuff that Teresa was said to have been wearing and what was missing from her place. And only a few feet away in the cornfield, they found a green scarf matching her clothing as well.

Now about a quarter mile down the road at the tractor entrance to the cornfield, they also found a green garbage bag of women's clothing, which had like a pink sweater in it. And at first they thought it could be Teresa's. But as they described each item, Bob said none of what they were describing matched the outfits that his daughter was last seen in. And then they don't find any other clothing nearby that does match. By the time they've gotten her remains, they're pretty decomposed. So investigators asked the family to travel to the QPP headquarters in Montreal to see the body. So the whole family makes the trip, but only Bob goes in and he is devastated when he realizes

that he can't even be 100% sure that it is his daughter. The water in Canada's harsh winter elements have made her unrecognizable. Instead, they have to compare Teresa's dental records and it's only then that they confirm it really is Teresa. And as upsetting as this news is to get the allures are honestly a little hopeful. I mean, at least now they know where she is. And now there's hope that there will be a real investigation, right? Because that's what police told them all along. We're not going to do anything until there's a body.

Right. Well, now there is. So show us what you got. And it starts with her autopsy, but that doesn't provide the clarity that anyone's hoping for. Due to the decomposition, police can't confirm exactly how long she had been in the water. And there aren't any large wounds or sign of traumatic injury. But she did have some bruising on her armpits. She was missing a finger and some toenails, just likely from her time in the water.

And there's also evidence of quote, vomiting matter that was left in her throat and her mouth. Were there any signs of sexual assault? Like, could that be why she was found without most of her clothes? Well, there's no evidence that she was assaulted. But at the same time, there's no evidence that she wasn't. According to where she were here, police tell the family that they don't think Teresa was sexually assaulted because her underwear was on her body and not ripped or anything like that. Okay.

But the state of her underwear doesn't mean that she wasn't assaulted. Like you said, there isn't really evidence either way. I thought the exact same thing. From the research, I can't tell if investigators even ran any tests to check. It seems like they just kind of saw her underwear, saw that it was still on, and kind of made their determination based on that alone. Which, to me, seems confusing. And things only get more confusing when police tell the allures that they think Teresa died of a drug overdose.

What do you mean they think she died of an overdose? The word think is really tripping me up here. Yeah, because this is the people who are supposed to tell you, right? Well, I guess the problem is, again, this is like at the point where they're doing the autopsy. And you can't see that, right? Like you can't just from the autopsy with your visual determine a cause of death, unless it's like stabbing, gunshot wound, something like that. There's no physical injuries that they can point to.

So they kind of revert to the theory that they had when she first went missing. Like, oh, she's on drugs. This must have been an overdose. Obviously, to confirm this, they have to send off a sample for a talk screen. But until they get the results back, this is pretty much their working theory. And at this time, how long did those kinds of screens take to get back? TBT. I mean, it can be wildly different based on what you're looking for, I think. And that's now. Never mind that this is happening decades ago. A lot has changed since then.

Basically, all that I know is at the time the family knows that the sample gets sent off on April 17. And the whole time they're waiting, too, they're like insisting, listen, maybe you guys should be doing something else because we don't think that it's going to show that she died by an overdose. Right. But this whole time all police do is basically expand on their theory without providing more evidence or really any evidence at all. They say that they believe Teresa used drugs somewhere on campus and possibly died from an allergic reaction, or she choked on her own vomit, and then not wanting to get in trouble, they think her friends panicked and drove her out of town, took her clothes and wallet, and then dragged her body to the creek.

Okay. And the evidence to back that up is what exactly? Because you're using words like they believe, they think. And their theory. Yeah. All this feels like just like an idea. Yeah. Yeah. And Bob and, I mean, it's the same as you're feeling because Bob and Marilyn are like, it feels like you guys are pulling this out of thin air just for like an easy answer and to like get us off your back. Yeah. To be honest, it kind of reminds me of like when I'm asking one of my kids if they did something, knowing that they did something wrong.

And they're just like, I don't know. Maybe the dog did it. Do you think like it's so strange because it's just, it feels almost like they're just trying to get out of doing any work whatsoever. Right. So if this wasn't disappointing enough, the families also kind of let down by their PI Robert. He just can't turn up anything new. And he at this point kind of just fades into the background of the investigation. So they're forced to place their last bit of hope in the hands of the QPP,

who finally seem like they're making some progress because on April 20 lead investigator, Corporal Rock Godro calls the allures with news. Teresa's wallet has been found. An article in the Gazette stated a local farmer had found the wallet on the side of the road about 12 and a half miles from where Teresa's body had been located. Now, what I can tell from the source materials is that this road is off the west side of town. It isn't anywhere close to the route that she would have been taking between her dorm and the main campus. Now, investigators also find her ID, her library card, some old receipts and a picture of Vlad. And it makes the most sense that these items were the contents of her wallet.

Just by inferring, but the source material doesn't like clarify that specifically where they inside the wallet, where they outside. I have no idea. But either way, they have the wallet, but they don't learn anything new from the wallet. There's no report of blood on it, no clues as to what might have happened. Corporal Godro spends the next few weeks interviewing more than 90 students and retracing the family's search route through town. But about a month later, he tells the allures that he still hasn't made any progress. And ultimately, he too believes the overdose theory. And understandably, Teresa's family is beyond frustrated and that frustration turns to despair as days turn into weeks and then months.

And their phones just don't ring with any updates. In June, Corporal Godro concludes his findings with a written report, but it isn't released to the public. And all he tells the family is that an official ruling can't be made and only time will reveal what really happened. Okay, so they must have gotten her toxicology report back then, right? You would think, but if they had, at this point, they still haven't shown the family the results. Okay, is there a chance that whatever came back on this report maybe didn't fit in their picture of her overdosing like they thought? So they all kind of looked at each other like, hey, let's pretend that never happened. You know, just to kind of like make it fit in their theory?

Well, I don't know. What I think is so strange is this like his statement about like only time will reveal what happened. Well, no, not really. Like not if you're saying like, hey, we're basically tapping out. We're not going to do anything. Time doesn't reveal it. Like you have to do work. You have to go chase down leads.

I feel like that's such like a baseless comfort thing to say. Like it does nothing. It does absolutely nothing to like help the family. Right. Help for the investigation. Just nothing. Exactly. And nothing is happening because the case basically goes cold, though the QPP does claim it's still open and active.

But Bob and Marilyn don't think that anything is going on behind the scenes. And when they receive a package from the QPP with Teresa's wallet and jewelry inside to them, that is every sign that their daughter's case has just been abandoned. Like they're basically handing them evidence back. Right. I was just going to say like that's them sending them like the contents of evidence. Yeah. It's like we're done. We're not going to need this anymore.

Yeah. As the years go by, the allures are forced to move on with their lives going back to work and to school. But Teresa's absence just stays with them. They even keep her wallet sealed in a plastic bag just in case there's an opportunity for testing in the future. So her family considers it evidence at least. Good Lord. Yeah. And that's the end of the evidence.

But all this time, there are a few glimmers of hope, but there are glimmers. For instance, in 1983, the QPP decides to call in the coroner to conduct another toxicology review into Teresa's death. I don't know what sparks this. There's not a lot of information about it in my research, but the final report doesn't bring any resolution. According to Wish You Were Here, her death is just labeled violent and undetermined. Okay, but violent would mean she was murdered, right? I would think, but I can also see maybe this meaning that she didn't die peacefully. Like, you know, if she exfixiated on her own vomit in her throat, maybe that is violent.

If she were to, and again, we know this didn't happen, but like, if she were to have gotten hit by a bus, maybe that's how you determine something. Filled on a stair, like something like that, like violently. I don't know. Now, it's not until the mid-90s that there is more movement on Teresa's case when her brother Andre takes the reins of the family's investigation. Now, it's worth noting he actually at the time believes the overdose theory, but he wants to bring Teresa's friends who allegedly dumped her body to justice. So he spends a few years trying to nail those people down. And to do that, he interviews her close friends. He even spends time tracking the whereabouts of some of their boyfriends in case maybe some of them were involved.

But ultimately, his investigation also turns cold. You know, I find it really interesting that Teresa's parents were so against the idea that Teresa had overdosed, but her brother Andre accepted it and kind of went with it. Yeah. I mean, I think back to like when I was that age, my siblings knew way more about my life and what I was up to than my parents ever did. And Andre was the one going to school with her. Like, it kind of feels like maybe he knew something that they didn't. I don't know. Well, he actually kind of addresses this in his brother's book.

He said that he didn't really know anything more than the rest of his family. Like I said, they ran in like different social circles. He was basically just taking police's word at face value. Maybe and even he was thinking maybe I just didn't know my sister as well as I thought I did. And he's watching his parents like struggle. It's their baby. Maybe it was just hard for them to accept. And he's like, listen, these guys, these police, they're supposed to be the experts.

So in his mind, there was no reason not to believe them. Right. So like I said, eventually Andre's investigation fizzles out and Teresa's case is put on the back burner again until 2001. And that's when her youngest brother, John, takes up the mantle to try and find out the truth of what happened to her. John was only 14 years old when his sister went missing. He doesn't quite buy into the theory of an overdose. He's kind of sides with his parents on this. And so when he decides to do his re-investigation, he kind of starts the same way that his older brother did by re-interviewing Teresa's friends

and going over their initial statements. And you'd think after all this time, neither one of those things would result in anything new. But it turns out one of the original interview transcripts does have information that John had never heard before. One of the girls who last spoke to Teresa in the dining hall on November 3rd said that Teresa had bummed a cigarette off of her during their conversation, which to her meant that Teresa was probably out of cigarettes. And whenever that happened, she usually restocked at this local spot about a quarter of a mile from the residence hall. So right off the bat, John is thinking that this could be the missing piece of the puzzle. Maybe Teresa left the dining hall at 6.

She walked the three hours back to the dorm. She talked to that girl on the stairs. And then before heading up for the night, she decided to run out for cigarettes. And that is when something went wrong. Now, of course, this is speculation, but it's a solid theory. So he spends the next few months trying to get a hold of Teresa's case file in the hopes that it contains something just to fill in the gaps. The Lennoxville police are now defunct, so all of the files that they had are now with the QPP, but they are not willing to cooperate. So John just keeps pushing. He even travels to Lennoxville to talk with some school officials who were around when the case took place.

And they tell him that back in 1978, several members of the staff requested a full-scale search for Teresa in the days after she was reported missing, but police denied their request. What? Yeah, these are staff members. On top of that, they say that later when they spoke with Corporal Goudreau, he had told them that he suspected Teresa had been murdered and specifically he thought she'd been strangled. Even though he told the family that he agreed with the overdose theory. Yeah. Why is the family being told one thing and the staff being told another? What's going on? I don't know.

But this actually sparks John to file a freedom of information request, and while it doesn't get him everything, he is allowed to see the original coroner's report from 1979. And let me tell you, when he reads it, he is shaken to his core. Because according to reporting by Odile Nelson for the National Post, it turns out police did get the toxicology results back from that very first test they did. And Teresa didn't have any prescription or illicit drugs in her system. I freaking knew it. And it gets worse because as John reads on, he learns that the coroner also reported that Teresa had strangulation marks around her neck. Holy shit. Yeah, I'd call that pretty freaking violent. Yeah.

Why didn't they tell any of this to her family? I wish I could tell you. Like, again, the only thing I can think of is like, oh, they withheld the information because the investigation was ongoing. Okay. I think calling whatever law enforcement in Quebec did to figure out what happened to Teresa. Calling that an investigation is generous because I feel like they pretty much wrote her off and told the family she'd overdosed. And now we know that is not just a flat out lie, but strangulation marks definitely point to homicide. Well, yeah. And why they were like doubling down on this. Again, if you had this theory fight, what I would love to know is where this theory came from, right?

Total. Because all her friends are saying no, they don't find evidence of that. There's like not drugs in her dorm room. I cannot wrap my head around, first of all, where the theory came from. And then why, as they're getting evidence proving that theory wrong, they couldn't be bothered to even take a second look. Right. You have to have all the theories. You have to cross out all the things, all the possibilities. But I feel like they were doing that, but still going in this different direction.

Yeah. To me, it'd be one thing if you just had like one investigator, but I think the worst part is that this report wasn't just seen by one investigator or even by the local department. Remember, the QPP had access to it too. And in theory, so did the officials who were part of that inquest back in 1983. Right. So how many people saw this information? And in my mind, just ignored it. Right.

Like how many eyes had to look the other way to end up here? I don't even think I have words to describe how furious stuff like this makes me. No. And I can't even begin to imagine what this was like for John. I mean, he knew that foul play was a possibility, but it had kind of been just like in the back of his mind. This was the first time he was like, oh my God, she really was murdered by someone. And this realization changes his perspective on the whole case. He's looking at everything in a new light, like the vomit found in Teresa's throat, which he learns could be a side effect of strangulation.

He goes on to spend the rest of the year going in circles with the QPP, trying to get more information and more access to her file, but he keeps hitting barriers. Either the QPP won't work with him or they can't. For instance, Joanne Bailey reports for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that when he asked them to test the evidence that they have for DNA, like the stuff like Teresa's bra and underwear, they say that they can't because they had gotten rid of the items. No. No. Rich, I'm not even surprised. They probably got rid of it the same time they're handing the family back her jewelry and wallet, right? I was going to say, I wish they would have just sent it back with the wallet.

Oh my God, it would at least be like in a Ziploc bag in a closet somewhere. Mm-hmm. From this point, John kind of disappeared down a rabbit hole for a while, and eventually it all becomes too much. So finally, in the spring of 2001, he reaches out to a woman named Patricia Pearson for help. You see, Patricia was John's high school ex, and she had studied journalism at Columbia University and written about true crime. So he's like, you know, if anyone's going to help me, this is the person in my orbit I know who might know how. Mm-hmm. And she agrees to join his investigation. The two of them spend the rest of 2001 and 2002 researching everything they can get their hands on.

And then one day, they come across an article from a local paper that makes them stop in their tracks. It turns out, Teresa wasn't the only young woman who was murdered in 1978. The article mentions a 10-year-old girl named Manon Dubey, who disappeared from the city of Sherbrooke in January of 1978. And just a quick side note on the setting of all of this. Lenoxville is actually like a suburb of Sherbrooke. So, I mean, literally, they're like right next to each other. Manon's body was found two months later in March. She was partially submerged in water in a rural area just 18 miles south of the city.

And where she was found was only five miles from where Teresa was found. The similarities don't end there either, because Manon's cause of death was also undetermined due to decomposition. Now, there was a pretty thorough investigation into her death, and they even suspected one of her male family members at one point. But ultimately, nothing panned out. And by the time John's learning about her case all the way in 2002, her case had still been unsolved. Now, even with all the similarities, there are some notable differences, like their age, for instance. But Manon's story gets them thinking, could there be other similar cases from around the time Teresa and Manon died? So that's when they start digging through more newspaper archives, and sure enough, they find another one.

The murderer of 20-year-old Louise Cameron. She went missing from Sherbrooke a year before Manon in March of 1977, and she was last seen by a convenience store clerk outside of the store at around 9.30 p.m. Just two days later, her nude body was found in a snowdrift in the woods 25 miles southwest of Sherbrooke, just a few feet away from where those hunters had claimed to see the pile of women's clothes that police thought were Teresa's. Now, those clothes definitely aren't Louise's because she died over a year before Teresa, but it is a weird coincidence. Now, her cause of death was labeled as strangulation, and there was also evidence that she had been sexually assaulted. So now we have two young women pretty close in age who likely died in similar ways within the span of, what, a little over a year? Yeah, and like with weird connection to almost the exact same area, right, the Teresa's clothes found where her body was, it feels like a pattern might be emerging, right? So they dive head-on into this theory, and over the next few months, John and Patricia track down and speak with more than a dozen women from the area who say that they survived assaults and attempted abductions in the late 70s and the early 80s.

And according to which you were here, they all describe the same person, a short man with dark hair. Now, frustratingly, John isn't able to get ahold of any of the police reports that these women say that they filed because, surprise, surprise, those files have been destroyed. But he does find a newspaper article about one of the attacks, and luckily that article includes a composite sketch of the guy that everyone's describing. Now, we're going to include this photo in our show notes on the website, but Britt, can you just quickly describe him for us? Yeah, so the sketch is a little bit blurry, but even from that, you can tell he has pretty distinct features. He has these thick, dark brows that almost come together in a unibrow. His face is rounded with what I recently learned is called a duck tail beard, which is like a mustache that grows over his lip and then into his beard and into his sideburns. His hair hangs just over the top of his ears and in the front, it's chopped like straight across his forehead, kind of like what you'd see in a bowl cut.

A strong bang is what I would call it. So now that John and Patricia have an idea of who they're looking for, at least what this guy looks like, because they never found the guy in the sketch, they wanted to get ahold of Teresa's full case file more than ever, just to see if any man matching this description showed up anywhere in the initial investigation. And when they reach out to the QPP in Sherbrooke, they get a response from an officer who asked to be called Jill's. And this officer tells John that he'll meet in person and show him the file, but he can't give him a copy. Now, they would have loved a copy, but this is a big win. However, when the two meet, John only gets a short amount of time to just quickly flip through everything. And the only new information that he learns is that the only piece of Teresa's clothing found in the initial investigation, her green scarf,

was actually torn in half when they found it in the cornfield near her body, which to him is yet another sign of foul play. Like if she overdosed, he doesn't see how the scarf would get all torn up and didn't make sense. So while they still don't have all the answers, John and Patricia decide to take the next step and publish their research in a newspaper series called Who Killed Teresa? The articles run in the National Post in August of 2002, and the response is immediate. Even more women start coming forward with stories of attacks in the area, most of them describing that same short guy with dark hair. And because of the article's revelations about the initial investigation, there is a lot of public outrage against the QPP. By the end of the month, the pressure mounts to a point where the QPP caves, and they announce that they're going to do a review to consider reopening Teresa's case, which is another huge win.

By this point, they've got new investigators who might see something that the original detectives didn't, Right, those fresh eyes. Or, you know, might give a s***. But it's only three weeks later that they release a statement saying that they won't be re-investigating because there isn't enough new evidence. Which in my mind, I'm like, how about you go with the evidence you had back in the day that you did nothing with? Yeah, I'm like, what if there is no new evidence because you haven't looked for it? I don't know. Exactly. John is disappointed by this, but he's not surprised. Like, this is the same department doing the same s*** over and over again. So he and Patricia go back to doing it again all on their own. And it's around this time that they get in touch with an expert on sex-related crimes in Quebec, and they send him all their research. Because remember, it was believed that Teresa wasn't sexually assaulted, but between the way she was found and the lackluster investigation,

John and Patricia figure it's worth looking into. Like, they don't trust anything they've been given at this point. Same. They want to hear from real experts. Yeah. Now, the expert asked to remain anonymous, but after reviewing everything, he responds in a matter of days with not only new information, but the name of a suspect. This source gives John a file that contains research on a man named Luc Gregoire. And when John sees this guy's picture, I have to imagine he got full-body chills. Brad, I want you to take a look. Oh my God, the resemblance is uncanny.

To that sketch, yeah. Yeah, like, they have the same face and chin shape. You can even see, like, his dark, thick brows and, actually, the hair is spot-on. It looks, okay, maybe a little longer in the front, and his mustache is fuller, the beard is shaved, but this is really similar to that sketch. Yeah, it's super eerie. Now, at this point, this Luke guy is in his 30s and currently serving time in a prison in Alberta for an undisclosed crime. But he'd been in the Sherbrooke region in the 70s and 80s.

He was around 17 years old when Teresa died, making him 16 at the time of Louise's murder. But he lived in the same neighborhood as she did and often frequented the store that she was last seen outside of. Now, I couldn't find anything about his early life in Sherbrooke, or if he had any connection to Manon, that 10-year-old girl. But at some point, he'd moved out to a town in Alberta called Calgary, where he was convicted on several charges in the late 80s and the early 90s. Those crimes included armed robberies and DUIs. There was an incident where he attacked a sex worker in his car with a hammer,

and he was suspected in a series of murders of local sex workers. But ultimately, there wasn't enough evidence to convict him or even to arrest him for what they suspected him of. But even all that aside, the biggest red flag in that file they were given was a case that he was convicted of in 1993. It was the murder of 22-year-old Leilani Silva. He had grabbed her outside of a 7-Eleven and taken her into the woods where he broke her legs and then strangled her to death. When he was arrested, police found women's clothes in his possession and a search of his home uncovered a hidden shoebox full of women's jewelry. Oh my God, that is serial killer behavior. Mm-hmm, treasures, yeah.

Were they able to figure out who all that stuff belonged to? Well, if they did, it's never been reported on, just this treasure trove of trinkets. So when John and Patricia learned this, they are sure that this could be their guy. So they marched back to the QPP with this evidence, and they once again demand a new investigation. Because again, they're like, oh, is this like what they found her body, right? Like, we're not going to investigate until we find her body. Okay, we found her body. Uh, same theory.

We're just still not going to investigate. Right. Like, we thought about it all these years later. We're not going to investigate unless, you know, we have something to do, unless someone does our job for us. And John walks us in and he's like, hey, I did your job for you. And they still refuse. But John isn't about to just let them brush off this potentially huge lead. So he spends months sending them petitions and making phone calls, basically making as much noise as he can.

And in November, they finally break and they invite him and Andre to their office in Montreal. Basically, detectives take all of the evidence John has collected, including Teresa's wallet that they held on to. And after years and years of pushing and, like I said, doing QPP's work for them, they promise to launch a thorough investigation, which includes testing the wallet for DNA. So it's at this point that John, I mean, it has to feel like a weight is taken off of you, right? He feels like he can finally breathe. His hard work has paid off and he can finally step back and let the investigators do what they should have been doing all along. And so as he sits back and is waiting, a few months goes by and then he gets a call with some huge news.

They got a suspect's DNA profile from Teresa's wallet. And that's the word they use, suspect. But when they tested against Luke's DNA, the results are inconclusive. And I can't imagine how John feels because with this result, the QPP lets Teresa's case fall to the wayside again. And so John is back to being his sister's advocate. He even goes so far as to actually write to Luke in prison and he asks them directly, did you kill my sister? Did you kill Teresa? Luke does respond with a handwritten letter, but he denies any involvement.

In 2003, the QPP decides to retest Teresa's toxicology sample. I, again, have no idea what drives them to conduct these retests, especially because they keep declaring the case cold. But this time they tell John that they're able to rule out the presence of alcohol in her system as well. Which is like, great, cool, that's what we've been telling you. Cool, thanks. And really, that's where the official investigation hits a wall for good. Luke dies in prison of unspecified causes in 2015 and in John's mind, he thinks the truth behind Teresa's death died with him. It wasn't until five years later in 2020 that he and Patricia publish Wish You Were Here.

And Daniel Moray reports for The Times News Network that it's this book that sparks the first major development in over a decade. See, a woman who John calls Alex, contacts him and says that she thinks her father and her uncle may have murdered Teresa. She tells him that after she saw the book, she tried to go to police and tell them first, like she had this whole story. But... Let me guess, they blew her off. Yep. So John agrees to meet with her and she tells him that when her father, Geralt Lechance, was dying of cancer in 2017, he made a deathbed confession that he and his brother Regis Lechance and another man picked up a girl who was hitchhiking in Lenoxville in 1978.

He told her that they had sexually assaulted her and then Regis dragged her into a cornfield outside of Compton, killed her and then dumped her body in a culvert. Alex goes on to say that she thinks her dad was more involved in the murder than he let on because before his death, he'd often talk about his love of strangulation and would even, quote, simulate strangling her as a child. What the actual f***? Mm-hmm. And if that weren't enough, Alex says that her dad also confessed to another murder. He told her that he and Regis had abducted a girl from a convenience store in Sherbrook and then killed her.

Wait, a convenience store in Sherbrook? Louise Kimmerrand? It's possible? I mean, the story fits? So even though John felt so sure that Luke was responsible, he decides to do some research on this, like, group of brothers. I don't have much info about Geralt, but according to a blog posted by John on TeresaAlor.com, he learns that Regis has quite the rap sheet. He was a career criminal, turned police informant, who was involved in an arson for hire the very weekend that Teresa went missing. Now, the arson was set up by police to catch a former associate of Regis' and he went on to be a star witness in the trial. Now, Regis died in 2006, so John can't confront him directly, so he sets out to learn who this third man was in the hopes that that guy might still be alive. And he finds out that the cornfield Teresa was found by belonged to a family who had previously employed the man that Regis had turned on in the arson case.

Okay. I know it's a little confusing, but... Yeah, I think I'm following. The man that Regis turned on was in jail at the time of Teresa's death, so he can't be the third guy. But Regis had a ton of connections to both the local criminal and police circles since he was an informant, so that third person could literally be anyone. But since he's an informant, John comes up with this theory about why his sister's case was so mishandled. I mean, again, making up this drug theory with zero proof that anyone has ever seen, hiding the coroner's report, destroying evidence, it could all be a big cover-up to protect Regis. So John thinks that local police covered up the murder, so they wouldn't lose Regis as the star witness in this other trial?

Exactly. And if this is true, the police might have let an alleged predator run around free to further their own agenda, right? If John's theory is accurate, then yes, which is why you can see if they did this, them covering this up not only then, but now. Unfortunately, there's no way for John to prove any of it without physical evidence, though. This is just his theory. But that DNA profile from the wallet still exists. So what he does is he decides to go get a cheek swab from a member of the Lechance family, and he sends it to a lab in the US for testing. This is just a guess, but I feel like that's probably not going to be admissible in court.

Oh, no, probably not. I mean, I know that in the US, there'd be a whole chain of custody issue at the very least. Mind you, like, there's a thousand things wrong with this if you're going to present it in court, but I think he's just trying to find answers at this point. Like, how many decades has it been? Court be damned. Nothing else is happening through official channels. But ultimately, in the end, it doesn't really matter because the test results, again, are inconclusive. And that is where Teresa's case stands today.

John continues to run the website TeresaAllore.com, and he has a podcast, Who Killed Teresa, where he covers cold cases across Canada. And in 2018, he was awarded the Senate of Canada's sesquicentennial medal for his work in victims' advocacy. His hard work is a prime example of what you can accomplish when you refuse to give up. But despite his success, he is still left wondering, what happened to Teresa? Who killed Teresa? But Teresa isn't even the only one left deserving answers. To this day, there hasn't been resolution in Manon or Louise's case either. We've actually been in contact with John, and one of the things we asked him was what he wants to come out of this episode.

Because if there's anything he needs, our listeners to do, write letters, send petition, stuff like that, we know that all of you crime junkies are already enabled to help. But all John told us was that he wants everyone to support their local women's shelters and crisis centers. Even though he never got a clear answer about what happened to his sister, he wants to make sure that no woman ever has to go through what she did. And that if something terrible does happen, then they have a safe place to land. I know there are a ton of organizations here in Indianapolis that could use your support, like two that we've worked with in the past, Coburn Place Safe Haven and the Julian Center.

But these shelters and crisis centers are pretty much in every city across the country, so be sure to reach out to one in your local neighborhood and see what you can do to help. Whether they need monetary donations or a donation drive or even volunteers, just donating a couple hours out of your week to mark some things off their list can make a huge difference. And when you're working with these groups, remember Teresa Allure and Manon Dubey and Louise Camarand and all the women who have fallen victim to sexual violence and still deserve justice, no matter how much time has passed. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com.

And be sure to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crimejunkie is an audio chuck production. So, what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?