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You are here: Home / Cold Case News / New manager on Caughlin case

New manager on Caughlin case

July 18, 2012 By Alice

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 coordinate 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!

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Related

Filed Under: Cold Case News, Unsolved Tagged With: Canada, Crime Scene, DNA, Finger Printing, Forensics, hit-and-run, Karen Caughlin, Sarnia, Unsolved Homicide

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Dina Fort

Author Notes

On my website, I write about old, unsolved cases. Most are from the pre-DNA era and need renewed media attention. I only do research and leave active investigation of these cases to the professionals.

My posts are about homicides, missing and unidentified people, wrongful convictions, and forensics as related to these cases.

On book reviews: I only review select works of true crime, crime fiction, and historical fiction/mysteries. The stories have to fit my website's theme and research. It remains my prerogative to not review a book. Please check the FAQ page for more!

My database has hundreds of cases listed by the victim’s last name. You will find a brief description there as well. The database is free to the public.

All writing suggestions for cases that come in by email are added to my to-do list in the order in which they were received. Please be patient. My to-do list is very long but no case gets dropped and I will get back in touch.

If you have any questions about my website please check the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, the about page, and the tabs in both menu bars. If you still cannot find the answer there, please contact me.

Thank you,

Alice de Sturler

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If you use my work, please add a link back. Let your readers know where you found your information. I do the same for you. Thank you!

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Copyright: Please add a link back if you use my work. Let your readers know where you found your information. I do the same for you. If you need help with this, just contact me. Thank you, Alice de Sturler

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