Canadian Killers Series: The Roadside Stalker - Part 1

Updated: Sep 18

Over the course of 17 years no fewer than seven young women vanished from roadsides around London, Ontario. Many of them were seen in what was likely one of their final acts of climbing into a car.

Could these unsolved murders have been the work of one man… a roadside stalker? Listen to the episode above and decide for yourself.

The victims:

Georgia Jackson, 20 of Aylmer, Ontario

Georgia Jackson disappeared on February 18, 1966, while walking home around 6 p.m. from her shift at the Aylmer Dairy Bar, which was only a few blocks from the house she shared with her family. She was missing for nearly a month before her partially clothed body was discovered by a forest ranger on March 16th, tangled in the underbrush on a wood lot. She had been hit in the back of the head, suffocated, and sexually assaulted. One of her ears was removed with surgical precision and her arm was mutilated.

Suspects:

The Aylmer Diary Bar customers: The list of possible suspects was vast. The Aylmer Diary Bar was a widely popular hang-out spot for the locals and college students, but it was also frequented by the truckers and highwaymen who regularly traversed the nearby Highway 73.

At least two unknown men: Two days after she went missing, someone called the Jackson home claiming to be Jacqueline and stating she was being held "downtown" by "two men." The line soon went dead. This call was reportedly not taken seriously by police and its authenticity was never verified.

Jacqueline Dunleavy, 16 of London, Ontario

Jacqueline Dunleavy was murdered in 1968. | Courtesy: London Police

Two years after Georgia Jackson went missing and roughly 25 miles away from Aylmer, Jacqueline Dunleavy disappeared under similar circumstances. Jacqueline was walking to the bus stop after wrapping up her shift at the Stanley Variety Store in London, Ontario around 6:15 p.m. on January 9, 1968. Her father was a local police constable and immediately went looking for her when she didn't arrive home on time. Her body was found around 8:10 p.m. that night by three boys who planned to go tobogganing near the parking lot of the Children and Parent Resource Institute.

Jacqueline had been hit in the back of the head and was severely beaten on the left side of her face. The scarf she had been wearing had been fashioned into a garrote and used to strangle her to death. She did not appear to be sexually assaulted, but semen was found on her coat, which was lying nearby. She was covered in fingernail scratches and pink tissue was found shoved into her mouth and down her throat after she died, earning the perp the nickname “The Tissue Slayer.”

An eyewitness told police they saw Jacqueline get into a white 4 door sedan, possibly a Chrysler. Tire tracks left in the snow near her body showed the vehicle had four different tires, leading investigators to believe that the vehicle was in poor working condition.

Suspects:

A customer from the Stanley Variety Store: The Stanley Variety Store sold all sorts of common goods, but a hidden spot in the very back of the store was a secret place only known by select customers- those who knew it stored a treasure trove of illicit materials behind a curtain, hidden from the general public. People seeking X-rated videos knew where to look, but a portion of this clientele was looking to satisfy darker deviances, and they knew this was the place to obtain videos that catered to pedophiles.

Police reportedly learned that a series of customers were sexual sadists, who only liked to shop when Jacqueline was working. According to the book Murder City, one of these men had made the 45-minute drive to the store twice a week on the days Jacqueline was known to have worked. This unnamed man's criminal history revealed he had several convictions for indecently exposing himself, an activity that often escalates to more violent sexual crimes.

The second unidentified suspect was a morgue attendant. A few months before Jacqueline's murder he had been accused of stopping at the same bus stop Jacqueline was last seen at and forcing a teenage girl into his car.

Sylvia Fink was murdered at 7-years-old.

Another customer was a convicted killer who reportedly had access to a car and was known to be in the area the night Jacqueline vanished.

Robert Masters was 13 years old when he admitted to killing 7-year-old Sylvia Fink. Fink had been found hanging by her neck in the attic of an abandoned grocery store. Masters, who was barely a teenager himself, allegedly confessed to his parents. According to the details in the book Murder City, Robert strangled Sylvia before hanging her and then masturbating nearby. Masters was only sentenced to four years for the cold-blooded killing.

The Store Owner: The owner of the Stanley Variety, Joe Clarke, was allegedly in the habit of hiring young attractive females to help around the store. Only a week after Jacqueline was found murdered, Clarke reportedly put his shop up for sale, accepted a lowball offer, and quickly moved out of town.

Lynda Mary Louise White, 19, of London

Lynda White was murdered in 1968. | Courtesy: The Hamilton Spectator

It was November 13, 1968, roughly ten months after Jacqueline Dunleavy's murder when 19-year-old Lynda White went missing. She had finished her final exam for French class at Huron College in London and was heading home on foot. Two male friends offered her a ride and dropped her off a couple of blocks from her apartment. She was never seen alive again.

Five years later about 70 miles away in Bayham Township a farmer found some clothes that are believed to have belonged to Lynda. Roughly a year later and thirty miles from where the clothes were found, on May 9, 1973, Lynda's remains were discovered. Her remains were verified through dental records. No clothes or jewelry were found nearby. Her right arm was missing. Lynda's remains may have been stored somewhere else for a significant period of time before being dumped.

Suspects:

Unknown: Roughly 300 people were interviewed in connection to the case, but no suspect was ever publically announced.

Jacqueline English, 15 of London

Jacqueline English worked two waitressing jobs at 15 years old to make ends meet. On October 4, 1969, she left her closing shift at the Metropolitan on the outskirts of London and was last seen on foot crossing over Highway 401 headed toward her bus stop. Eyewitnesses reportedly told police that she was roughly halfway across the overpass when a maroon, 4-door sedan pulled over and she got into the back seat

She was missing for five days before two men out duck hunting roughly 45 miles away in Tillsonburg found her nude body floating face up in a creek. The only item found on her body was a black Alaskan diamond ring that adorned her finger. When she was pulled from the water, police noticed a single wound on the back of her head. The autopsy confirmed this injury had caused her death, likely by a tire iron or similar instrument. A pair of earrings she was wearing the night she went missing was also found in the creek. The evaluation of her body told police that she had been in the water for less than 24 hours. Just as seen with Lynda White, it appeared that this killer had kept Jacqueline somewhere else before placing her in the water.

Three days later and 18 miles south of where her body was found, some of her clothing was discovered in Bayham Township, not far from where Lynda White's clothing was found. Among the items that had been tossed into a ditch were Jacqueline's waitress' smock, her underwear, and her pantyhose, which had been ripped. Her shirt and bra were there, too and both had been torn in half. Police found two different types of semen, one type inside her body and another type on her underwear. It is believed the semen found inside of her had been left during consensual sex with her boyfriend. The second source of semen has never been confirmed.

Roughly three weeks after she had vanished, someone found a shrine on a sidewalk. Among the items were a perfume bottle, a cosmetic bag, and a pencil case with pens, including one inscribed with Jacqueline English’s name. These items had been placed near the corner of an intersection that was in direct line of sight from one of the apartments she had recently lived in.

Suspects:

The Man at the Metropolitan: An eyewitness came forward several weeks after Jacqueline went missing and claimed to have seen the young waitress upset after a long conversation with an unknown man inside the restaurant before her shift ended.

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

If you have any information on these crimes, please visit https://www.canadiancrimestoppers.org.

SOURCES:

Canadian Killers Series: The Roadside Stalker - Part 1

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