OPP Solves 38-Year-Old Cold Case In Abduction And Murder Of Little Girl

It is one of the oldest cold cases in the OPP files – and now 38 years after it was first opened, cops believe they’ve solved it.

It involves the kidnapping and killing of a 12-year-old girl named Katherine May Wilson. The native of the small town of Harvey, Ontario left her home to pick up the mail and some groceries in nearby Kirkland Lake on October 20, 1970.

She never came home.

Witnesses recall seeing a pick-up truck in the area where she was last spotted, but despite a lengthy probe, investigators were never able to find any evidence of what happened to her.

For almost four decades the case and the mystery lingered. But authorities never forgot about the youngster or the pain her disappearance caused her family or the community.

And then on Wednesday, the OPP issued a statement many thought they’d never live to hear: they’d apparently solved the case with the arrest of a 60-year-old suspect.

Barry Manion is from London and has been charged with abduction and first degree murder. He’s a relative of the victim’s late father.

For a case that’s been quiet for so long, it seems only natural that silence would surround its ending. An OPP spokesman tells CityNews.ca police are keeping a lid on what led them to the alleged killer, because the investigation isn’t completely wrapped up.

Staff Sgt. Don Goard says intense and renewed local public interest in the mystery forced officials to make the announcement, but they’re holding back on the details of how they solved it for now.

Assembling tips from the public appear to have helped lead police to their man. A $50,000 reward (top left) had been announced in the baffling case, but it’s not clear if  it will be paid out.

Cops hope to reveal more about how this cold case heated up this week, but a search of the outskirts of the town is underway to try to locate the girl’s remains. It’s not certain what forensic teams will find after all this time.

In a statement, OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino thanked the community and the victim’s family for their help in finally bringing the story to a close.

Manion will be in a local courtroom on Friday to face the charges in a case that stretches back to when he was still a young man. At the time of the  crime, he was just 22 years of age.

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