The following is not a comprehensive list, but includes some famous child murders in recent history.
Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French |
Leslie, 14; Kristen, 15 |
Niagara Region, Ontario |
1991 |
Leslie and Kristen were both abducted, tortured and murdered. In 1993, the court struck a deal with Karla Homolka. She was given a 12-year sentence on two counts of manslaughter in exchange for testimony about her ex-husband, Paul Bernardo. In 1995, Bernardo was convicted of raping and murdering Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. |
Emmanuel Jacques |
12 |
Toronto, Ontario |
August 1977 |
Emmanuel was working as a shoeshine boy on Yonge Street in downtown Toronto. He was lured into an apartment above a body rub parlour, strangled and drowned in the kitchen sink. In 1978, Josef Woods, Saul David Betesh and Robert Wayne Kribs were convicted of second-degree murder. Werner Gruener was acquitted. |
Andrea Atkinson |
6 |
Toronto, Ontario |
October 1990 |
Atkinson Andrea was abducted from her building, sexually assaulted and murdered. She was later found stuffed in the storage tank on the sixth floor. In February 1993, John Terceira, the janitor of the building, was convicted of first-degree murder |
Sharin' Morningstar Keenan |
9 |
Toronto, Ontario |
January 1983 |
Keenan was abducted in downtown Toronto and found dead 10 days later. A murder suspect, Dennis Melvyn Howe, is believed to be still at large. He is on the RCMP's Most Wanted List. |
Jessica Koopmans |
5 |
Lethbridge, Alberta |
May 4, 2001 |
Koopmans' body was found near a farmer's field outside Fort Macleod. A family friend, 31-year-old Anthony Gallup, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. |
Holly Jones |
10 |
Toronto, Ontario |
May 12, 2003 |
Jones was abducted in broad daylight within blocks of her west-end Toronto home. The next day, her remains were found in two locations on the city's waterfront. On June 20, 2003, Toronto police arrested Michael Briere, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder. He pleaded guilty on June 17, 2004. |
Domenic and Gemini Brown |
Domenic, 15 months; Gemini, 3 months |
Calgary, Alberta |
In the summer of 2000 |
The infants' mother, Rie Fujii, left them alone for 10 days when she visited a boyfriend in Cochrane, AB. She told the boyfriend that a babysitter was looking after the children. When she returned home, she found the two babies dead. Rie Fujii, who is from Japan and was living illegally in Canada after her student visa expired, pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in 2002. She was sentenced to eight years in prison, and was denied parole in June 2004. |
Heather Thomas |
10 |
Surrey, British Columbia |
October 1, 2000 |
Thomas was sexually assaulted and dumped into Alouette Lake. Shane Ertmoed, 23, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. |
Cecilia Zhang |
9 |
Toronto, Ontario |
October 20, 2003 |
Zhang went missing October 20, 2003. She was apparently abducted from her bedroom overnight. Her remains were found in March 2004 in a ravine in Mississauga, ON. Peel Regional Police arrested Min Chen, 21, a visa student from Shanghai, China, on July 21, 2004. He was charged with first-degree murder in connection to Cecilia's death. |
Christine Jessop |
9 |
Toronto, Ontario |
October 1984 |
Jessop was abducted from her home, sexually assaulted and murdered. Three months later her remains were found about 50 kilometres from her home. On October 15, 2020, Toronto police identified the killer as Calvin Hoover, a Toronto man who was 28 years old at the time of Jessop's death. He died by suicide in 2015. |