Canadian Killers Series: The Sinister Sergeant

Updated: Sep 18

Two innocent lives were stolen. One was caused by a man who vanished without a trace… the other led to a wrongful conviction. But could these two tragedies be linked by one Royal Canadian Air Force Sergeant—a man with a dark history of targeting young women, who somehow slipped through the cracks?

A montage of newspaper clippings regarding the two cases. | Source: Newspapers.com

In this episode, we explore the possibility that these two unsolved cases are connected by a dangerous man who was overlooked for far too long.

The victims:

Susan Cadieux, 5, of London - January 6, 1956

It was a cold Friday night when five-year-old Susan Cadieux was allowed to stay out late and play with her brothers and other children in the schoolyard of their church, which was just across the street from her home. Around 8 p.m., a man approached the children and said he had an appointment to meet with the priest. Susan's brothers became distracted by a girl who slipped on the ice nearby and when they turned their attention back to Susan- both she and the stranger were nowhere to be seen. A large search commenced with hundreds of volunteers coming to help out. Susan's body was found the next morning on the property of a local construction business. She had been sexually assaulted and had died of exposure to the cold. Her tears had been frozen as they rolled down her cheeks.

Lynne Harper, 12, of Clinton - June 9, 1959

12-year-old Lynne Harper was in search of something to do on the warm, Summer night of 1959. She hitched a ride on the handlebars of a school acquaintance and reportedly wanted to go see the ponies at a farm not far from the Clinton Air Force Base where she lived. The friend said he dropped her off near the highway and rode away. Moments later, he claimed to have turned around and seen her getting into a light-colored Bel Air Chevrolet with what appeared to be yellow plates that had backed onto the country road from the highway. Lynne had been missing for two days when her body was found in a heavily-wooded area by members of a search party. She had been raped and strangled with her blouse.

The potential suspects:

Susan Cadieux: The suspect seen by Susan Cadieux's brothers was described as roughly six feet tall, thin, and in need of a shave. He was estimated to be roughly 35-years-old, wearing a long, light brown, unbuttoned coat, rain boots, and a very distinct black furry hat, like one of those Russian-style ones with the flaps that go over the ears.

Sketch of Susan Cadieux suspect by Eric "Charlie” Bradford. | Courtesy: London Free Press

Lynne Harper: Then 14-year-old Steven Truscott was the youngest person in modern Canadian history to be sentenced to death by hanging after his 1959 trial. At the time it was the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder. He had given Lynne Harper a ride on his bike shortly before she disappeared and was arrested within days, despite several eyewitnesses who seemed to corroborate his alibi and version of events in which he claimed to have dropped 12-year-old Lynne off near a highway and watched as she climbed into a car.

Steven Truscott with the bike Lynn Harper rode on. | Newspapers.com

Truscott appealed his conviction. His execution was postponed. In 1960, his death penalty was commuted to life in prison. After a female journalist from Toronto wrote a book highlighting some of the deficiencies of the Truscott case in 1966, the Canadian government referred the case to the Supreme Court. Truscott was released on parole in 1969 after serving roughly ten years in prison.

After living in anonymity for decades, he decided to try and clear his name. He submitted his DNA for testing and successfully fought for an investigation into his trial. In 2007, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the original verdict was a "miscarriage of justice" and it must be thrown out. One major factor in this decision was oral testimony on now-debunked science that was presented in the 1959 trial and which claimed to have narrowed Lynne's time of death to right around when she was last seen with Steven.

This method is now known to not be accurate and new scientific techniques have determined that Lynne may have died several hours later. Ultimately, the court declined to issue a full declaration of innocence for Steven Truscott.

So, if Steven Truscott is not the killer, then who is? it turns out there's an entire cache of viable suspects in Lynne Harper's case.

37-year-old Clayton Dennis was a convicted rapist who lived in a town called Seaforth, which was about 15 minutes drive from Clinton Air Force Base where he was contracted to work as an electrician. He had been sent to prison in 1948, a little more than 10 years before Lynne’s rape and murder, for the sexual assault of a woman. It’s been reported that he had met Lynne and had worked inside her home to repair a clothes dryer. It is alleged that Dennis was never looked at, or asked a single question by police, in the wake of Lynne’s murder, and as Steven’s trial started, Dennis suddenly left the area. He reportedly eventually moved to the United States and landed in Florida where he was charged but acquitted of sexual offenses. The last update came in 2001 from the author of 'Until You Are Dead,' stating that he was still living in Florida. However, given his age in 1957, he is likely no longer still alive.

Another suspect, recognized too many years later was a 19-year-old airman named Matthew Meron. He worked as a lifeguard on base and at the pool that Lynne frequented and visited the night she disappeared. Right after Lynne was murdered, Matthew transferred to a different military base. As the years passed, horrifying things were uncovered about him. He married, had two daughters and allegedly became a drunk, began beating his wife and sexually abusing his daughters. He also had access to his mother's Chevrolet around the time Lynne was killed. The car fits the description of the one Steven Truscott claimed to have seen Lynne climbing into. Matthew died in 1985 and had reportedly never once been questioned by police.

Sgt. Alexander Kalichuk is perhaps the most suspicious person of interest. He was born on Nov. 3, 1923, in Manitoba and served in the Royal Canadian Army in 1943. After World War two, he left the military and worked on a family farm. He married a widow who had two children of her own.

They had a third child together. For about five years, he seemed to live a relatively quiet life. Then, in 1950 he re-enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force at 27-years-old. Shortly afterward, he was arrested, charged, and convicted of an indecent act. The language of the charge is vague, but included a female victim and synopsis that he had broken into her home and committed “indecent exposure.” His military file was misplaced and found by someone who was organizing a drawer in the 1960s. It revealed two things with certainty, he was an excessive drinker and had a predilection for young females. He was arrested and convicted several times for exposing himself in front of young girls and, one time in particular, it was documented that he exposed himself on a beach and began masturbating in front of children. Leading up to Lynne’s murder, the Sergeant was on parole for one of these many convictions. But that didn’t stop him from giving in to his impulses.

In May of 1959, just two weeks before Lynne's death, he was arrested for trying to lure a 10-year-old girl into his car. She had been alone near her home when he pulled over and showed her liquor, candy, and girls' underwear, offering them to her if she got in his car.

Sgt. Kalichuk drank himself to death in 1975 during one of his stints in a psychiatric asylum.

This is the fourth episode in our Canadian Killers series, which is now exploring a rash of unsolved homicides that occurred during the time period when multiple serial killers were active in Ontario, Canada. Perhaps, through your sleuthing, you can help to solve some of these crimes and bring resolution to the victims' families.

Sources:

Canadian Killers Series: The Sinister Sergeant

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