For nearly 50 years, authorities in Canada have been searching for the identity of the “Nation River Lady,” whose remains were found eastern Ontario’s Nation River on May 3, 1975.
On Thursday, the Ontario Provincial Police announced that a man has finally been charged with her murder.
According to the DNA Doe Project, Ontario Provincial Police found blood on a nearby bridge and speculate the woman was thrown into the river from the eastbound lanes of Highway 417. She had also been strangled with a flat plastic covered television cable, her hands and ankles had been bound with men’s neckties, and her face had been wrapped with a tea towel.
Since her remains were discovered in the 1970s, investigators used several methods in an attempt to identify the woman, including a tip line, artist renderings and a 3-D facial approximation released in 2017.
A breakthrough in the case came in 2019, when a new DNA profile of the victim was obtained by the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto.
By 2020 she had been identified as Jewell “Lalla” Langford with help from the DNA Doe Project. This is believed to be the first time Canada’s history that this type of case was solved with forensic genealogy, said police.
While Langford – who was 48 at the time of her death – went missing in Canada, she was actually from Tennessee. In fact, she was a prominent member of the Jackson, Tenn., community and owned a spa with her ex-husband. When she traveled to Montréal and did not return, her family reported her missing.
“For 47 years, Jewell Langford's family did not know where she was or if they would ever learn what happened to her. As science and technology progressed over the years and with continued collaboration by all investigating organizations, we were finally able to answer those questions.
Our work is about finding the truth for families like Jewell's and never giving up regardless of the passage of time,” said Dr. Dirk Huyer, Chief Coroner for Ontario.
Last March, the remains of Jewell Langford were repatriated to the U.S., where a memorial service and burial were held.
After Langford was identified, investigators worked with the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal “to examine evidence gathered decades before related to the unsolved missing person case,” said the Ontario Provincial Police. This collaboration, along with help from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies, ended in Hollywood, Fla.
There, authorities found 81-year-old Rodney Nichols, who was charged with murder.
“The heartbreaking part is that Jewell’s mother clearly searched for her for years and unfortunately died not knowing what happened to her daughter,” said Team Leader C. Lauritsen of the DNA Doe Project.
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