Canadian police solve 48-year-old case of teenager’s rape and murder using DNA
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Loading... - Helmi Salonen
- 26 May 2023
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Canadian authorities have announced a major breakthrough in one of Quebec's most notorious unsolved cases. The 1975 rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl, Sharron Prior, has finally been linked to a deceased man from West Virginia. The Longueuil police in Quebec have utilized DNA evidence to establish with absolute certainty that Franklin Maywood Romine was responsible for the heinous crime.
Franklin Maywood Romine, born in 1946 in Huntington, West Virginia, met his demise in 1982 at the age of 36 in Verdun, Montreal, under mysterious circumstances. Recently, his body was exhumed from a cemetery in West Virginia for DNA testing, which confirmed his connection to the murder. Longueuil police have matched Romine's DNA, a significant discovery, to a sample found at the crime scene. Additionally, his physical appearance aligns with the description provided by a witness. Romine, known for his extensive criminal record, has now been definitively linked to the murder of Sharron Prior.
The case of Prior's rape and killing has remained unsolved for decades. She vanished on March 29, 1975, after leaving to meet friends at a pizza parlor near her residence in Montreal's Pointe-St-Charles neighborhood. Three days later, her lifeless body was discovered in a wooded area in Longueuil, located on Montreal's South Shore. Despite numerous investigations and the scrutiny of over 100 suspects, law enforcement failed to make any arrests. Yvonne Prior, Sharron's mother, who is now in her 80s, has spent her life relentlessly searching for her daughter's murderer.
Interestingly, Romine's name only surfaced in the investigation last year. During a thorough examination of criminal records, the Longueuil police uncovered a troubling history of violence and Romine's attempts to evade law enforcement by frequently crossing the border between West Virginia and Canada. Records obtained by WCHS-TV revealed that Romine's criminal journey began with an attempted escape from the West Virginia penitentiary in 1964, followed by a successful escape in 1967. Shortly afterward, he acquired a criminal record in Canada.
In 1974, Romine was arrested in Parkersburg, West Virginia, for breaking into a house and sexually assaulting a woman. After being released on bail of $2,500, he fled to Canada, as reported by the Associated Press at the time. Only months after Prior's murder in 1975, Canadian border officials apprehended Romine and extradited him back to West Virginia, where he received a prison sentence of five to ten years for the sexual assault in the Parkersburg case. Tragically, Romine passed away in Canada in 1982, soon after his release. Regrettably, officials have been unable to obtain a death certificate providing details regarding the circumstances surrounding his death. Romine's family buried him in the Pine Grove cemetery in Putnam County, West Virginia.
Upon the recent exhumation of Romine's body, local prosecutor Mark Sorsaia referred to the crime committed against Sharron Prior as the epitome of human evil. He described it as a convergence of the most malevolent elements preying upon the most innocent—a child. Sorsaia conveyed the immense anguish experienced by a family, particularly a mother, upon losing a child in such a horrific manner. He emphasized that some things are even worse than death—the knowledge that one's child suffered such a fate.
