On April 27, 1982, 27-year-old Sylvie Trudel was found decapitated and dismembered in a downtown Montreal apartment. Her killing arrived the same day another woman, Murielle Guay, was found dismembered, heightening alarm in the city. Witnesses placed a 37-year-old man, William Dean Christensen, in the apartment where Trudel’s remains were discovered and as the last person seen with Guay.

After the bodies were discovered, Christensen fled to the United States. He was later arrested there in December 1983 and convicted in connection with murders in Pennsylvania, receiving a life sentence. Because he was serving that sentence in the United States, Canadian authorities did not pursue formal charges in Trudel’s and Guay’s deaths and the matter was closed. The brutality of Trudel’s killing and the reported release error remain stark features of the case.

Did anyone in Montreal at the time have information about Christensen’s presence in the apartment or about Sylvie Trudel in the weeks before April 27, 1982?