36-Year-Old High School Teacher Murdered After 1988 Sexual Encounter
Perpetrator Identified Using Latest DNA Analysis Technology
A man in his 50s was arrested in Canada as the perpetrator of a murder case involving a sexual minority man that occurred 35 years ago.
On the 26th (local time), Canadian news agencies reported, citing a press conference by the Prince Edward Island (PEI) police, that Todd Joseph Gallant (56) was arrested the previous day as the murderer of a teacher in Charlottetown in 1988. Gallant is accused of strangling Byron Carr, a local high school English teacher, with a towel in the early morning of November 11, 1988, and then mutilating the body. At that time, Carr was 36 years old, and Gallant was 21.
The night before the incident, Carr reportedly brought Gallant to his home and had sexual relations with him. Carr was found dead in his bedroom, and a note saying "I will kill again" was left on the wall at the scene. Carr, who was a sexual minority, had not disclosed his sexual identity at the time, but after the news of the incident spread, the local sexual minority community was reportedly terrified of a serial killer, according to the news agencies.
Gallant fled to the United States after the crime, and the case remained the only long-term unsolved case in Charlottetown. However, 19 years after the crime, in 2007, the police resumed the investigation. First, the police collected DNA from the perpetrator’s underwear found at Carr’s home and sent it to a specialized forensic agency for analysis. Then, using the latest technology, they conducted genetic lineage analysis. As a result, the forensic agency uploaded the DNA to an extensive database and, after a long process of comparing it with existing information, was able to identify Gallant as the perpetrator.
Brad McConnell, chief of the Charlottetown Police Department, announced Gallant as the perpetrator on the day, stating, "We have obtained decisive evidence that convinces us he is the murderer of Byron Carr." He also said, "This case, which remained unsolved for 35 years, has been a trauma for our community for a long time," adding, "But no one has suffered more than Carr’s family and his friends in the gay community." He further noted, "In a dark and unfortunate era, Carr had to keep his sexual identity a secret."
The police recently arrested another man as a suspect in the case but released him on the 25th. However, the police plan to continue investigating this man to clarify his involvement and whether he was an accomplice.
Meanwhile, Gallant had a prior record of home invasion in PEI, Canada, in 1987, one year before committing this crime. He left for the United States in 1988 and lived in Texas and Arkansas, accumulating a criminal record there as well. Gallant returned to Canada in 2022.
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