Toronto Police Identify Deceased Suspect in Three Cold Case Murders- But Are There More Victims?
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Twenty-five-year-old nanny Christine Prince went missing on Monday, June 21, 1982, after going to see a movie in downtown Toronto, Canada, with some friends.
Christine, who was born in Wales, U.K., was working as a live-in nanny for the three-year-old daughter of Mr. Kruzick, a GTA lawyer at the time, and was on her way back to the residence after a night out with friends.
She was described as kind and cautious, and on the night of June 20, 1982, she had reason to be especially careful.
Just weeks earlier, a 19-year-old cheerleader named Jenny Isford had been raped and murdered in Toronto, and the case had cast a dark shadow over the city.
North York resident, Jenny Isford, the daughter of an official with the Ontario Ministry of Education, was found sexually assaulted and strangled to death on May 28, 1982.
At around 1:30 a.m., after a night at the movies and a restaurant, Christine said goodbye to her friends and boarded a streetcar on St. Clair Avenue. She rode it five blocks to Pinewood Avenue, where she worked as a live-in nanny.
She got off at her stop, put up her umbrella, and began to walk the rest of the way.
She would never be seen alive again.
Only Christine’s killer, or killers, know what happened next.
The events of the night remain a mystery to investigators, but police believe the young woman’s attackers may have been waiting in a vehicle when Christine crossed their path, and abducted her.
All that was left behind was an umbrella lying in the middle of Pinewood Avenue—a sign, investigators believed, that she did not willingly go with whoever snatched her off the street that night.
Police believe Christine may have been abducted near Humewood Park, a park where she often took the three-year-old girl she cared for.
Whoever her attacker or attackers were, transported her to an area known as a lovers’ lane not far from the Metro Toronto Zoo. Christine’s torn and scattered clothing was later recovered there.
The killer had driven there via a rural route and eventually discarded Christine’s body in a shallow section of a tributary of the Rouge River on Sewells Road at Finch Avenue East in Scarborough—approximately 30 miles from where she was abducted.
Her body was left in such an exposed area that it was noticed by several passersby and was discovered around 30 hours after she went missing.
She was found unclothed and face down, and it was clear from the bruises and abrasions on her body that she had been badly beaten.
Christine’s wallet was later found along Highway 401 by a road worker. Inside was her identification and $2.
Police had little to go on, but they speculated the killer likely had a four-wheel-drive vehicle, based on the routes taken and the difficult terrain. Investigators also believed the suspect or suspects were local, as they appeared to know the area well.
They questioned why the killer would drive such a distance only to discard the victim’s body in a location where it would be easily found.
The similarities between the murders of Jenny Isford and Christine Prince were difficult to ignore. Both young women were killed on rainy nights, had taken streetcars that evening, were sexually assaulted, and were believed to have been targeted by a stranger.
The following year, on September 1, 1983, the body of 23-year-old Claire Samson was discovered north of Toronto by a passerby in a wooded area off Sideroad 20/21 near Highway 93 in Oro-Medonte Township.
She had been killed by two gunshots to the head from a small-calibre firearm. Detectives released few details to the public, and reports on the case remained brief.
In 1997, the body of a nursing assistant , Gracelyn Greenidge, 41 , was discovered inside her Toronto apartment at 50 Driftwood Avenue.
A co-worker had last seen her the previous night at around 11 p.m., leaving her workplace at Castleview Wychwood Towers on Christie Street, north of Dupont Street. When Gracelyn failed to show up for her next shift, she was found dead in her home, having suffered fatal blunt-force trauma. She had been violently beaten to death.
According to a friend, Gracelyn, who was originally from Barbados, had worked at the care home since 1979 and was on the verge of qualifying as a registered nurse when her life was taken.
Forensic evidence was collected from the crime scenes, and bodies of all three victims, and preserved; however, the murders remained unsolved for decades.
It was not until 2016 that DNA evidence from the Prince and Samson cases was uploaded to the National DNA Databank, revealing a male profile linking the two murders.
The following year, DNA from the Greenidge case identified the same male profile, connecting all three killings.
In 2019, the suspect was identified as Kenneth Leslie Smith, who had died in Windsor, Ontario, at age 72.
On December 3, 2025, Smith was conclusively identified as the killer in all three cases, with a public announcement following on December 11, 2025.
Kenneth Smith lived and worked in Toronto at the time of the murders and media outlets report that he had a history of sexual assault.
The victims were not connected to one another in any way.
Investigators and those following the case now speculate whether Smith may be responsible for additional unsolved murders of women in Toronto and the surrounding area.