Police hoping for new tips on two cold cases
Posted June 18, 2016 9:29 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – In an effort to bring closure to victims’ families, the Vancouver Police Homicide Unit is going public with two cold cases in hopes of getting some new tips and leads.
The first case involves 28-year-old Chantel Gillade who was found in a Downtown Vancouver alley in September 1995. She was wrapped in a blue tarp and maroon-coloured blanket after having been seen getting into someone’s pick-up truck. That vehicle was believed to be a 1989 Chevrolet with tinted windows and a distinctive red stripe painted on the side of the canopy.
At the time, she had been going through gender reassignment surgery. In the years prior to her death, Gillade had been working as a sex trade worker and had a number of run-ins with police. She lived in various apartments in the West End and the Granville Mall area.
Constable Brian Montague explains the second case. “The case of 53-year-old Mary O’Donnell and she was headed home just after midnight on July 28th, 1988 when she was robbed and beaten to death on the grounds of Templeton High School.”
O’Donnell was petite and she lived alone after having lost her husband the year before. She also struggled with mental illness.
Montague say the VPD’s Cold Cases website, which has been up and running since 2014, has generated more than 70 tips and features more than a dozen murders. “While none have led to solving any of these cases yet, our investigators do remain hopeful. I think many of these families are still looking for answers. They want to know who’s responsible for the death of their sons and daughters and husbands and wives. I think it’s fair to say that some of those tips have led to some significant information that has helped, but nothing that has gotten to the point where we’d be able to solve a case.”
“I can tell you our investigators don’t put these cases on a shelf and forget about them. They don’t let these cases go. When a member of our department who worked on one of these cases retires, the case is passed on to somebody else but many of those investigators still keep in touch. They still want to know what’s going on with those files. They still want to know if there has been any progress.”
He adds the families of those featured on the site are consulted on a regular basis and they gave their permission for the VPD to profile the cases.
