Shon Hart was a devoted family man, remembered as a loving partner and father. The 31-year-old male left behind his partner, Tammylee Milligan, and their four children: Chantelle, Shona, Shannon, and Bruce. Born on November 18, 1974, he was also a beloved son, brother to five brothers and two sisters, and an uncle to many nieces and nephews. His eldest daughter, Chantelle, remembered herself as "Daddy's girl" and said that having him taken away uprooted their entire life. In his community, Shon was known to occasionally help the superintendent of his mother's apartment building with painting and other chores.
The Canada Day long weekend of 2006 was warm and sunny in Oshawa, Ontario. On the evening of Sunday, July 2, Shon was walking home alone after spending a wonderful summer afternoon with his children at a local public pool. As he made his way along a bike path near Mill Street, just north of the Oshawa Creek, he was brutally attacked and stabbed in the neck.
Despite the grievous wound, Shon fought to survive, managing to walk over 300 feet from the path toward his mother's apartment building at 454 Centre Street South. Desperate for help, he reached the ground-floor apartment of the building's superintendent, Dave Eddlestone, and smashed the glass patio door. Eddlestone rushed out to find Shon bleeding profusely on the small stone patio. Tragically, Shon bled to death on the patio before paramedics could arrive.
The Durham Regional Police launched an intensive investigation into Shon's murder. Officers canvassed the area extensively, conducting over 210 interviews and following up on more than 20 tips. A key piece of information came from witnesses who reported seeing a young man on a bicycle on the path that evening, warning people that there was a man in the area armed with a knife who seemed intent on robbing people. Despite this lead and a Crime Stoppers video re-enactment of the incident, police were never able to identify the young man on the bike or a suspect in the attack.
Detectives at the time called the case a "true whodunit." The motive for the killing remained a mystery, with investigators considering everything from a robbery that went wrong to a personal dispute with someone from Shon's past. The secluded nature of the bike path, a place frequented by a transient population, complicated the investigation. Police noted that while some people may have had information, they might have been hesitant to cooperate with authorities due to their own high-risk lifestyles. Investigators followed standard procedure, starting with Shon's life and closest relationships and expanding outward, but the trail eventually went cold.
In the years following the murder, Shon's family fought to keep his memory alive and to remind the public that his killer had never been found. They created homemade memorials at the site of the attack, leaving stuffed animals, signs, and even a bench with a plaque, but these were repeatedly removed by the city. In 2014, the family started a petition, which gathered over 200 signatures, asking the City of Oshawa to allow a permanent memorial to remain on the bike path until the case was solved. A compromise was eventually reached, and a small, more permanent marker was placed on the path.
As of June 2018, the murder of Shon Hart remained an open and active cold case with the Durham Regional Police Homicide Unit. Det.-Sgt. Mitch Martin stated that investigators were waiting for new information to come forward, acknowledging the possibility that the killer was a stranger to Shon and that only one person might know the truth. His family continues to hope for a breakthrough. "In my mind, he walks the path all the time," his partner Tammylee said of the killer. His daughter Chantelle expressed her longing for resolution, saying, "someday I might have closure because the right person might say something." Anyone with information about the killing of Shon Hart is urged to call the Durham Regional Police at 905-579-1520 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
