Vancouver Police are asking the public again to help them catch a killer. Two more cases have been added to the Department’s Cold Case website vpdcoldcases.ca, which is dedicated to generating tips to solve these crimes.
The body of 28-year-old Chantel Gillade was found in a downtown Vancouver alley in the early morning hours of September 1, 1995. She was wrapped in a blue tarp and a maroon-coloured blanket, and investigators learned that she was last seen getting into a black pick-up truck with a canopy, believed to have been a 1989 Chevrolet. It had tinted windows and a distinctive red stripe painted on the sides of the canopy.
Mary O’Donnell was heading home just after midnight on July 28, 1988, when she was robbed and beaten to death on the grounds of Templeton High School. The petite 53-year-old lived alone in the neighbourhood, and struggled with mental illness.
The Cold Case website, launched in 2014, has generated 72 tips to-date. While none has led to solving one of the 15 cases, investigators remain hopeful.
“In most of these cases, there is at least one person out there who knows something,” says Constable Brian Montague. “They may not even realize they’re holding an important piece of information in their memory. Sometimes that little piece of information is all we need to crack open a case and solve it.”
