New manager handling the Karen Caughlin case is great news. Fresh eyes to look over a file to see if we missed anything. On May 1, 2012, Inspector Chris Avery was assigned to the 1974 Caughlin investigation.
The case of Karen Caughlin has featured here on DCC ever since Karen’s older sister Kathy contacted me by email. Kathy generously provided childhood memories. It was written down with love and through many tears. Sharing it even after all these years, was extremely hard for her and I cannot thank her enough for doing this.
“This is where things get deeply emotional for me…remembering our many long nights as we used to stay up and talk girl talk. We always got in trouble for it, as our parent’s bedroom was next to ours. It never failed Karen would get me laughing about something and it would wake up our parents. We loved staying up to watch a good thunderstorm. The storms would scare us but we knew we had each other!
When we couldn’t sleep we would take turns writing on each other’s back until we fell asleep. We would always get excited on Tuesday nights because the local arena down from our family home held after school Wednesday public ice skating. Karen and I loved to go ice skating together and would coördinate our outfits every week. For many years our mom dressed us alike and everyone would ask if we were twins.
When I reflect back upon these times it seems like Karen and I not long before her murder just shed our interests in playing with our Barbie’s. The borders of Karen’s 14-years of life were home, school, church and ice skating. She was just beginning to discover her new love for roller skating, experiencing the adventure of entering high school and with that meeting new friends and boys.
Karen’s favourite song was “If You Need a Friend” by James Taylor and it was played in her honour at her funeral.”
I agree with the new case manager Avery who stated in the Sarnia Observer that “he encourages the family to speak to the media because it keeps the case before the public and could trigger more tips. “I think that’s positive,” he said.”
The more people read about Karen’s case the better. People moved away and may not have realized she died. They may have memories that can fill in some gaps with a little help of their dairies, yearbooks, etc. Moreover, so many years have passed since Karen was killed that maybe the right alliances have now changed. Maybe someone can speak up now who used to be afraid. Maybe the person to be afraid of in 1974 does not pose a threat anymore. In other words, with a new manager on the Caughlin case there is a chance to finally get to the bottom of this mystery.
Karen deserves that!
To be continued!
