The SPVM announced Wednesday that they solved the murder of Catherine Daviau, a 26-year-old woman killed in her home in the Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie borough in Dec. 2008.
Police say the DNA of Jacques Bolduc, who died of natural causes in 2021 at the Archambault Institution, where he was serving a sentence for two robberies and attempted murders, matches that of what was collected on the scene.
Photo of Catherine Daviau
The force made the revelation in collaboration with the Forensic Sciences and Legal Medicine Laboratory (LSJML) of the Quebec Ministry of Public Security and the use of genetic genealogy.
On Dec. 11, 2008, Daviau was found brutally murdered in her apartment on 5th Avenue, near Masson Street — believed to have taken place in the evening.
Photo of Jacques Bolduc.
The murderer then allegedly attempted to cover up the evidence of his crime by setting fire to the apartment before fleeing.
Traces of his DNA were collected during investigators’ examination of the crime scene.
Police confirmed Bolduc was not a relative of the victim and he reportedly contacted Daviau a few days before the murder, after she had listed her car on an online classifieds site.
As Bolduc is not alive, the SPVM’s confirmation of his identity closes the cold case and won’t be in court.
“Over the years, several investigative strategies have been deployed and hundreds of pieces of information have been processed to solve the murder of Ms. Catherine Daviau,” said the head of the Major Crimes Section, Commander Mélanie Dupont.
“We never gave up, and genetic genealogy finally allowed us to definitively identify the perpetrator of this horrific crime,” she added.
“Our thoughts are with the victim’s loved ones, and we hope that today’s announcement will bring them some peace of mind in their grieving process.”
The long-term investigation was helped by genetic genealogy, which allowed investigators to establish family trees to target a family of interest and cross-reference the suspect’s DNA with DNA profiles found in genealogy databases.
“For the past 17 years, the Laboratory’s scientists have worked in collaboration with the SPVM to complete this investigation,” said Suzanne Marchand, Senior Executive Director of the LSJML. “The arrival of innovative DNA technologies has helped solve the murder of Catherine Daviau. This can be seen as a source of hope for all those still waiting for answers.”
“Our goal in the coming years is to solve other unsolved murders by leaving no stone unturned and taking advantage of the new tools at our disposal. What motivates investigators is to bring justice to the victims and provide answers to grieving families,” said Dupont.