'It killed us': N.S. family still searching for justice 25 years after teen's murder

Cold case: N.S. family still searching for justice The family of a Nova Scotia teenager is still searching for justice 25 years after she was found murdered. Heidi Petracek has more.

The family of a Nova Scotia teenager is still searching for justice 25 years after she was found murdered.

Shelley Denise Connors disappeared from her River Road home in Spryfield, N.S., on May 29, 1993, after receiving a phone call.

“My brother was home. He said that she got a phone call from a man. He answered the phone, she went outside after she answered the phone, and she never came back,” recalls her sister, Angela Connors, who was 21 years old at the time.

Shelley’s mother reported her 17-year-old daughter missing the next day.

Her body was found in a wooded area, partially covered with leaves and branches, near the Spryfield Lions Rink the evening of June 1, 1993. She wasn’t wearing her shoes or a jacket.

Connors says her sister’s mysterious death still haunts the family.

“It killed us. I mean, we lost a part of our family that we’ll never get back,” she says.

Connors says police had viable suspects at the time, but it rained heavily before her sister’s body was found, making it difficult for investigators to obtain physical evidence.

The case remains in the hands of cold case investigators with the Halifax Regional Police and RCMP integrated crime unit.

While 25 years have passed, police say there’s still a chance Shelley’s killer may be brought to justice.

“There’s always advances in technology, and you hear on the news quite often of old cases being solved with that information,” says Const. Carol McIsaac, acting media relations officer for the Halifax Regional Police.

“So we’re hopeful that it will come to a successful conclusion.”

Today, Connors can only wonder what her sister might have become. She says Shelley wanted to be a child-care worker, and would have been a wonderful aunt to her children. She says she’s not giving up hope and is asking anyone with information to come forward.

“If anybody does know anything or saw something that day, I know it’s 25 years later, but it’s just a little bit of hope that we have that someday her murder will be solved,” says Connors.

Shelley’s case has been added to the Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program, which offers up to $150,000 for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in certain cases.

Anyone with information about Connors’ death is asked to contact police, Crime Stoppers, or the Major Unsolved Crimes Program.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Heidi Petracek