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hello everyone and welcome back to another True Crime Mysteries video thank you all for being here
today we're discussing what's been described as Canada's oldest and most high profile
murder investigation that has now recently been solved thanks to genetic genealogy
let's get into it it was on March 29 1975 when 16 year old Sharon Pryor left her home in the point
Saint Charles neighborhood in Montreal Quebec she left around 7 30 PM leaving her person home
Sharon was meeting a group of her friends as well as her boyfriend at a pizzeria only blocks away
but never arrived Sharon was a sweet and bright teen she had a caring and nurturing nature and
had a particular Affinity towards animals she had dreams of becoming a veterinarian she was
known to be kind and warm and was a remarkable student with a bright future ahead the oldest of
four siblings she was an excellent big sister and always set a good example for them no one alerted
Sharon's parents when she didn't show up at the pizzeria as her friends had assumed she'd just
stayed home that night it wasn't until hours later when she missed her curfew that chair's
parents figured out her disappearance and called law enforcement initially detectives weren't
concerned and felt that Sharon had probably just gone off with her friends but her parents weren't
convinced Sharon always called home if there was a change in plans and was always home on
time she didn't have a history of running away and in her bedroom was all her money and bus pass
precious time passed detectives eventually concluded that Sharon had been abducted likely
in the alleyway behind their home and on the way to the restaurant no one saw or heard the
abduction Sharon's mother Yvonne remembered something she said that Sharon had mentioned
a strange man had been following her when she'd been walking home a few evenings before
Sharon had started getting male friends to walk with her home after Dark detectives also
believed another attack about an hour before Sharon's disappearance may have been connected
blocks away from the alleyway Sharon may have been abducted from 23 year old Cheryl Roy was
attacked a bit before 7pm she was walking alone on her way to the pharmacy to grab diapers for
her daughter when she saw a man walking in towards her on the other side of the alleyway
she said that he had his hands in his pockets and looked like he lived in
the area she didn't notice anything visually concerning about the man she said he seemed
very normal and thought he would just continue walking past her and she would go on her way
she continued then suddenly heard footsteps running towards her and when she turned
around she was shocked when the man that had walked past her was barreling towards her
the man grabbed her and pushed her against a building she fought off her attacker screaming
and yelling he had a knife which he pressed against her throat telling her to shut up she
cut herself on the blade pushing the knife away she begged the man to take her purse and he said
quote I don't want your purse I want you I love you she said he grabbed her hair and was trying
to drag her to an empty lot he was saying quote you're dead you're not getting away from me when
I get through with you I'll cut you to pieces she screamed and struggled for about six minutes then
a group of young boys started to run towards them they had been investigating the screams
Cheryl knew one of the boys and called out to him this forced her attacker to back away and run off
after the man ran away she was helped into a nearby home and called the police
she described the man as about six feet tall 200 pounds Caucasian with a mustache she said
he only spoke English and didn't have a French accent he spoke in a calm low voice during the
entire attack she also noted he didn't smell like alcohol and she never got a good look at his face
Cheryl lost her voice for two days from the screaming the Mana tried to rip and cut her
pants from her body she thanked the kids for coming to her Aid after the attack she felt
that if she had passed out or hadn't made so much noise to attract others to help she would be dead
though unlike in Sharon's case she didn't feel that she'd been stalked by her attacker she
didn't feel like she'd seen him before the attack had felt completely random and unprovoked it had
been early in the evening in a well-populated area a bold attack detectives felt that two
attacks in the same evening in the same area were not a coincidence Cheryl did her best
to work with police sketch artists and came up with this rendering the sketch went around the
neighborhood but no one recognized the suspect detectives then turned to finding Sharon Pryor
three days later on April 1st local beekeeper's neighbor called and said that one of his gates
to his far pastures was open he hopped in his truck and went to investigate snow was still
on the ground and it was still too early for him to be opening up the hives so during the winter
months he didn't really bother with checking his Fields routinely when he got to the gate
he noticed it was indeed open the gate had a padlock on it but he never actually clicked
the lockdown it appeared that someone had come by popped open the gate and driven onto his field he
followed the tire tracks initially assuming some kids had gone onto the property to Joyride but
then instead discovered something shocking in some bushes what looked to be a pile of clothes a suede
jacket but in the clothes was the body of the missing teen Sharon Pryor Sharon was found naked
from the waist down her jeans and underwear were recovered five feet from her body caught in a bush
detectives as well as a medical examiner believe that she'd been deceased for one or two days
before she was discovered coming to the conclusion that someone had held her captive for the weekend
before dumping her body in the field her cause of death was blood aspiration she'd been severely
beaten her autopsy showed that she had a fractured jaw a broken nose and multiple broken ribs
at the crime scene Footprints were also recovered near Sharon's body
the impression was photographed and preserved the tire tracks and snow were also very clear
giving detectives a good idea of what type of vehicle they were looking for a man's shirt
had also been used to bind Sharon's hands and tape had been used to cover her mouth
based on the footprint Impressions and the size of the shirt they believed they were looking for
a man around six feet tall and 200 pounds which matched the body type of Cheryl Roy's attacker
despite the rigorous investigation and countless tips detectives weren't able to locate the man
that had attacked Cheryl nor identified the suspect that abducted and murdered Sharon
though always believing it was likely the same suspect law enforcement even put out a ten
thousand dollar reward for information however without a suspect the case eventually went cold
in 2004 the case was reopened with the help of a tip detectives began to investigate a neighbor
that lived a few doors down from the prior family detectives tore apart the garage on the property
believing it had likely been a garage near the abduction site that Sharon had been kept
in for up to three days before she was killed the garage was behind an apartment building and had
been used to house garden and building maintenance tools of the building owner with Sharon's murder
occurring just before spring it seemed like a perfect location to hide a kidnapped individual
knowing no one would need to come into the garage until the snow melted they tore apart the building
even digging deep down into the soil below looking for anything that might indicate Sharon had been
there but nothing was found likely too much time had passed and again the case went cold
in 2023 new detectives opted to reopen the Sharon prior investigation looking
towards genetic genealogy to find answers they started the investigation from scratch finding
male DNA on the male shirt that had been used to find Sharon's hands as well as on her clothing
they sent the DNA off to genetic genealogists who were able to slowly piece together the
unknown Man's family tree one surname popped up Romine and law enforcement started to
look into prior arrests around the time of Sharon's murder and a suspect's name turned
up with a lengthy criminal history in both Canada and the United States
Franklin Maywood Romine born in 1946 in West Virginia Romine had started his criminal career
as early as 16 starting with petty theft and destruction of property escalating to a vehicle
theft at 18 and going all the way to breaking and entering stalking and sexual assault in his 20s
what's amazing about the case is we found this guy and he probably never gave a DNA sample in
his life in the Decades of investigation and countless tips suspects in interviews Canadian
detective Sarah mine's name had never come up until last year when a DNA profile that
was removed from that blue t-shirt and Sharon's underwear enhance made it possible to Target the
last name of the suspect then they got the name Romine so then they just started looking at their
criminal records while they see this guy being very active in Canada and Montreal in the 70s
right a violent activity in and out of jail and then
he had previously been incarcerated in 1964 but escaped prison and fled to Canada
he frequently bounced between Canada and West Virginia racking up warrants in both countries
in 1975 he had been meant to be in prison in the U.S but it fled to Canada in between sentencing
hearings in that case he had stalked a waitress who had turned him down broke into her house and
sexually assaulted her at knife point between the constant fleeing the country and escaping prison
it's unclear why he'd been released to the public but who knows months after Sharon's attacks in
Montreal he'd been arrested by local authorities and extradited back to the U.S where he was
sentenced to 10 years in prison he served six in prison before being released he died in Canada
in 1982 at the age of 36 and it's unclear how he died his death certificate was never discovered
and his body was sent back to the U.S for burial he was buried next to his mother in Putnam County
Cold Case detectives reached out to romine's living relatives which included surviving Brothers
his brothers weren't surprised that he was being investigated for murder one of his brothers said
that he had been estranged from the family years before his death Franklin's brother was marine
and while overseas Franklin had attacked his brother's wife trying to sexually assault her
after that the rest of his family had nothing to do with him Franklin Romine was known to be
unpredictable violent and aggressive he had never been a suspect in Sharon's case though
he bore a striking resemblance to the police sketch that Cheryl provided to law enforcement
at the time of the murder he was 28 and lived nine kilometers or five miles from prior home
the tire tracks in the original investigation were also matched to a vehicle that Romine
had purchased while in Montreal and the footprint founded the crime scene also matched his shoe size
detectives petitioned to have Romine exhumed though his family protested legally while they
had provided DNA to give a familial match they didn't want their mother's grave Disturbed they
felt that with the proximity of Franklin's grave to their mothers it would be impossible
to exhume one without disturbing the other but the judge ultimately approved the exclamation
DNA was extracted from the remains uncovered and was tested against the DNA in Sharon's Cold Case
and it was a 99 match romine's DNA has been entered into Federal databases in both Canada
and the US and his DNA is now being tested against multiple Cold Case murder victims
the FBI has also stepped in and is working with law enforcement agencies on both sides
of the border to assist in determining any potential victims with similar circumstances
Sharon's mother Yvonne now 86 as well as Sharon's twin sisters were given the news
that her murder was finally solved after 48 years they attended the press conference and spoke about
who Sharon was before her murder as well as thanking detectives for solving her Cold Case
it's hard to know where to start we will start by saying how hard it was sitting through today's
police presentation of Sharon's case as it brought back many difficult memories once again
we are still grieving in the loss of our daughter and sister
who was savagely murdered at the age of 16 March 29 1975. life has not been easy
for us since then but Sharon has given us strength for the past 48 years and especially today
Sharon is here beside us well that's gonna be it for this video thank you so much for
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