Police hope new video will draw leads in 1979 murder

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This article was published 14/06/2016 (3414 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police hope advances in DNA — and a new Crime Stoppers video — will help solve the 1979 slaying of real estate agent Irene Pearson.

Homicide investigator Sgt. John O’Donovan said Tuesday police want to speak with construction workers who helped build the 114 Kinver Ave. home where Pearson’s body was found.

“Since Pearson’s death there have been significant advances in DNA technology,” O’Donovan said.

“Investigators would like to hear from anyone that may have worked on the construction of the home.”

Police also said Tuesday they believe one of the last people in the house with the victim was driving either a red or blue newer model Plymouth Volare or Dodge Aspen.

“(Someone) may have had this information for 36 years thinking it is irrelevant,” O’Donovan said.

“But it would help us.”

Pearson, 31 at the time of her death, was working with Castlewood Homes and scheduled to show a home near Cropo Bay and Kinver Avenue on Thursday, Nov. 15, 1979.

A maintenance worker found her body the next day in the basement of a vacant home nearby. She had been hit on the head with a blunt object, then stabbed repeatedly in the chest.

Pearson was last seen alive by two youths on the Thursday she disappeared at around 6:30 p.m., according to police. She was supposed to show the home to a possible buyer shortly after, but disappeared.

O’Donovan would say little about the DNA sample other than they are hoping, if construction workers come forward, they can at least eliminate more people as suspects. “We will not get a conviction on the DNA alone — that’s fair to say,” he said. “Twenty years ago it would have been useless. Today it is a tool we can use.

“(The case) continues to be a priority for the Winnipeg Police Service 36 years later,” he added. “Sadly, she has been dead longer than she was alive.”

O’Donovan said during the course of the investigation there have been numerous persons of interest, and while some have been ruled out, some are still considered of interest to police. But that doesn’t mean they are suspects.

Police believe Pearson was stabbed by a person she believed was a potential client, and was lured by the suspect to the second home.

Det. Sgt. Roger Penner, of the historical homicide unit, who was 10 when Pearson’s body was found, said police hope creating a Crimestoppers re-enactment will spark someone’s memory.

“Any information will help us,” Penner said. “We just need one more piece — who knows who has that piece?”

Penner admitted it is a long shot to solve a crime almost four decades old.

“It does happen, but it is rare,” he said. “We have files back to 1928. Everything that is workable we will work.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca, bailey.hildrebrand@freepress.mb.ca