Compton, Quebec — Theresa Allore was a 19-year-old Canadian college student who disappeared on Friday, November 3, 1978 from Champlain College Lennoxville in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.
On Friday, November 2, 1978, Theresa choose to return back to her apartment and study instead of going out with friends. She lived about 8 kilometers from the main campus. While there was a bus that would take them to and from campus, if they missed that bus, sometimes students would hitchhike.
It's not known whether or not she hitchhiked that night, but one student did claim to see Theresa at the residence around 9pm. However, this student claims that Theresa failed to show up later to hang out like they had planned. It's important to mention that there was not only a series of sexual assaults occurring on the campus that fall, but also a potential serial killer (or multiple) on the loose in the same area.
When Theresa went missing, no one seemed to notice at first. It was her friends that essentially reported her missing after a week. The police simply suggested that she ran away and someone at the school suggested Theresa disappeared because she had "lesbian tendencies" and would need to see a psychiatrist when she turned up. The college also continued to bill the family of Theresa her tuition and room/board.
Five months later, on April 13, 1979, her body was discovered in a small body of water approximately one kilometer from her dormitory residence in Compton, Quebec. She was in nothing but her underwear.
For years, the Allore family sought answers in the death of their daughter, and eventually hired an investigative reporter in 2002 to help present compelling evidence that not only was Theresa murdered, but that her death could be linked to other unsolved murders in the area. The theory was that the unsolved deaths of 10-year-old Manon Dube (March 1978) and Louise Camirand (1977) could be linked to Theresa's case. Manon Dube went missing in January of 1978 and was found dead (fully clothed) in March 1978 in a block of ice many miles away from where she was last seen.
Since 2002, Theresa's brother, John Allore - who produces the podcast, Who Killed Theresa? – has continued the investigation, identifying 14 other unsolved murders from 1975 to 1981 which may be associated. He successfully lobbied for the creation of a Sûreté du Québec cold case unit, which was created in 2004.
Beginning in 2018, John Allore started to focus on other Quebec cases from the 1970s through the present era, cases that further suggest systemic failures in Quebec criminal justice.
In Theresa Allore's disappearance, the man who was in charge of her college residence was never questioned. He disappeared shortly after her death. And soon after, the college shut down that residence. In 2001, the family went to police asking for Theresa's clothes and any belongings found near her body. The police only gave him some jewelry and said there was nothing else. It is believed, but not confirmed, that the evidence has been destroyed.
In 2016, they reopened the case into Theresa Allore's death. While they admit it's still "ongoing," they are only investigating it as a "suspicious death" instead of a homicide. This is despite the fact that the coroner found evidence of strangulation and bruises on Allore's body. Not to mention she was found only in her underwear.
John Allore, assisted by investigative reporter and friend, Patricia Pearson, developed compelling evidence suggesting Theresa was murdered, and that her death was linked to the unsolved cases of 10-year-old Manon Dube in March 1978 and Louise Camirand in 1977. Their book, Wish You Were Here links two other unsolved murders from that era; the 1977 deaths of Helen Monast from Chambly, and Denise Bazinet from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
Wish You Were Here suggests that systemic and criminal investigative failures at the hands of the Quebec police allowed for a serial sexual predator named Luc Gregoire to operate in the Quebec region in the late 1970s. In November 2018 John Allore was awarded the Senate of Canada's Sesquicentennial Medal for his work in victims advocacy for "recognition of your valuable service to the nation." The book Wish You Were Here about the unsolved murder of Theresa Allore was published by Penguin Random House Canada in September 2020.
