Woman in infamous Canadian cold case identified 4 decades later. Man in Florida charged
In 1975, the body of a woman was found floating in the Nation River, just outside Casselman, Ontario, Canada.
Police learned she had been killed and dropped off a bridge, CBC reported, but her identity remained a mystery.
She was known only as the “Nation River Lady” and became one of the most well-known cold cases in Canada, CBC reported.
Now, after more than four decades of mystery, the Nation River Lady has a name.
In a release from the Ontario Provincial Police on July 5, authorities identified the woman as 48-year-old Jewell “Lalla” Langford, from Tennessee.
Prominent community member
“Jewell was a prominent member of the Jackson, Tennessee business community who had co-owned a spa with her ex-husband. She was born in March of 1927 and had traveled to Montreal in April of 1975. She never returned home and her family in Tennessee at that time had reported her missing,” police said.
When her body was discovered by a farmer, she was wrapped in cloths, towels and rags, and her limbs were tied together with neckties, CBC reported in 2017.
Her case remained unsolved for decades before police were able to create an artist rendering and 3D facial reconstruction in 2017, police said. A tip line was kept active after the reconstruction was released, but there was no success.
Two years later, in 2019, police created a new DNA profile and sent the samples to a specialized genealogy lab in the United States, according to the release.
“Through whole genome sequencing, the samples matched those collected from two individuals listed in a family DNA tree,” police said.
Authorities finally had a name.
Police said this is the first cold case in Canada that has positively identified human remains using the process of forensic genealogy, according to the release.
Once Langford was identified and all physical evidence had been gathered, police repatriated her remains to her family in Tennessee where they were able to hold a memorial service and burial in March 2022, police said.
Man in Florida charged
Behind the scenes, police identified a man known to be in Langford’s social circle in the 1970s, CBC reported.
The man was Rodney Nichols, a known rugby player in the Montreal sport community among the English-speaking part of the city, the outlet reported.
Nichols, now 81 years old, was charged with murder, police said in the release, and lives in Hollywood, Florida, about 20 miles north of Miami.
“While the charge was formally laid before the court late last year, at the Ontario Court of Justice in L’Original, the (Ontario Provincial Police) did not announce this publicly at the time,” police said. “Prematurely sharing developments in the investigation could have jeopardized the investigation and ensuing court processes, including potential extradition from the United States.”
Canadian authorities have requested that Nichols be extradited, CBC reported.
“For 47 years, Jewell Langford’s family did not know where she was or if they would ever learn what happened to her. As science and technology progressed over the years and with continued collaboration by all investigating organizations, we were finally able to answer those questions. Our work is about finding the truth for families like Jewell’s and never giving up regardless of the passage of time,” Chief Coroner for Ontario Dirk Huyer said in the release.
Casselman is about 90 miles west of Montreal.
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