Serial killer responsible for murders of 3 women in Toronto in 1980s and ’90s: police

Toronto police and OPP provide an update on three historical homicides they say were carried out by late serial killer Kenneth Smith.

Police say they have now identified a serial killer responsible for the decades-old murders of three women in Toronto.

During a news conference at Toronto police headquarters on Thursday, investigators confirmed that the late Kenneth Smith has now been identified as the man responsible for the murders of 25-year-old Christine Prince, 23-year-old Claire Samson, and 41-year-old Gracelyn Greenidge.

Prince, a nanny from Wales, was last seen getting on a streetcar in the area of St Clair Avenue West at Bathurst Street in the early morning hours of June 21, 1982.

Her body was found in the Rouge River in Scarborough later that morning. Police said she had been sexually assaulted and beaten to death before being dumped in the water.

The following year, Claire Sampson, a sex worker in Toronto, was picked up by an unknown male on September 1st, 1983, in front of a hotel on Jarvis Street. Her body was found the following day in a wooded area just north of Barrie.

Police said she had been shot in the head and left in a farmer’s field.

Although DNA was left at the scene of both homicides, investigators were not able to connect the two cases until 2016, a development that launched a joint investigation between both Toronto police and Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

In 2017, the murders of Prince and Sampson were linked to a third homicide in 1997. Gracelyn Greenidge, a 41-year-old nursing assistant, was found stabbed to death inside her apartment on Driftwood Avenue on July 29, 1997. Police said she was last seen leaving her place of work the night before at around 11:30 p.m.

Det.-Sgt. Steve Smith, the head of the Toronto Police Service’s cold case unit, said despite the break in the cases, police did not have much more to go on. There were no obvious connections between the women and the manner of the homicides was also different.

“The state of the (DNA) samples and the technology available at the time limited how far we could advance the case,” Smith said Thursday.

But in 2022, he said police began working with a company that conducted Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) and three years later, investigators were able to identify close familial relatives of Kenneth Smith.

“With that information, the Centre of Forensic Science was then able to conduct the final comparison that led to the conclusive identification of Kenneth Smith,” he added.

Smith died in 2019 at the age of 72, police said.

Police said the families of the victims were all recently notified of the development.

“For Christine’s family and for the families of Claire and Gracelyn, the wait for answers has been extraordinarily long,” Deputy Chief Robert Johnson told reporters on Thursday.

“It is only through sustained collaboration and advances in forensic science that we have arrived at this moment.”

‘We know that there are unanswered questions’

Smith said these cases would not have been solved without the use of IGG.

“The families were elated when we told them,” he said.

“They were thrilled and especially right before Christmas. As they said, the holidays always brings back a tough time because you always remember those that are gone.”

OPP Chief Superintendent Karen Gonneau said the investigation does not end here.

“We know that there are unanswered questions, and we hope that anyone with information will come forward and help us complete this story,” she said at Thursday’s news conference.

Smith said that given there are no obvious links between the women, it appears the murders were “crimes of opportunity.”

He added that investigators believe there may be other victims that have not yet been identified.

“Based on the evidence we have today, we believe it is possible that there may be additional victims,” he said.

Killer had ‘history of sexual assault,’ police say

Kenneth Smith, who was born in Porcupine, Ont., lived and worked across Toronto during the period of all three murders. He moved to Windsor in 2013 and police said he had a “history of sexual assault.”

He said police will continue to retest property to see if there are any other cold cases that can be traced back to Kenneth Smith.

Investigators urged anyone with information about Kenneth Smith to reach out to police.

“Even details that may seem small could help us better understand the full extent of his actions,” Smith said.