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Quebec police to give update on 1975 murder investigation after identifying suspect

May 23, 2023 | 2:03 AM

MONTREAL — Police in a Montreal suburb are scheduled to provide an update today on the investigation into the 1975 slaying of a 16-year-old girl after exhuming the remains of a suspect earlier this month. 

The rape and killing of Sharron Prior has gone unsolved since she disappeared after setting out to meet friends at a pizza parlor near her home in Montreal’s Pointe-St-Charles neighbourhood.

Her body was found three days later in a wooded area in Longueuil, Que. on Montreal’s South Shore.

Last June, DNA evidence led police to suspect Franklin Maywood Romine in her death.

The body of Romine, who died in 1982 at the age of 36, was exhumed from a West Virginia cemetery in early May for DNA testing intended to confirm his link to the crime. 

Police say Romine, who had a long criminal record, was in Montreal at the time of the killing but was never suspected in Prior’s death. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2023. 

The Canadian Press