The Longueuil Agglomeration Police Service (SPAL) has announced that the body of a suspect linked to the 1975 murder of a Montreal teenager has been exhumed in the United States.
DNA tests are underway on the remains of Franklin Maywood Romine, who died in 1982, said SPAL Sergeant Francis Charette.
They should establish whether there is a match between the DNA that was recovered in 1975 and what was found with the exhumation of Romine’s body from a cemetery in West Virginia last week.
The suspect was identified thanks to new investigative techniques, said Sergeant Charette. Investigators were later able to confirm that the man was present in Montreal when 16-year-old Sharron Prior was raped and murdered.
“Mr. Romine also lived near the scene of the abduction and had knowledge of the place where the body of M.me Prior was discovered following the murder, ”said Sergeant Charette in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“We were also able to establish that Mr. Romine had a heavy criminal history, whether violent crimes and even sexual assaults that he had been accused of,” he added.
Moreover, Mr. Romine had a physical description that matched that given by witnesses to the events in 1975.
DNA analysis in the forensic science laboratory will take at least two weeks before the results are known, said Sergeant Charette. SPAL plans to make the test findings public once they are known.