Serial Killer May Be Responsible As 1967 Murder Victim Finally Identified

One of the province’s longest standing murder investigations opened a new chapter Monday, when OPP officers announced the identity of a young male who’s alleged to have been murdered in 1967 and whose remains were found near Coboconk, Ontario in December of that year.

Police are crediting information received this February, which allowed the Centre of Forensic Sciences to determine the victim as Eric Jones of Noelville, Ontario.

At the time of his murder, Jones was 18. He’d moved to Toronto that year and was living at an address on Howard Street. He was last seen by family members in April of 1967.

On Dec. 17, 1968 a hunter found human skeletal remains in a wooded area of Balsam Lake Provincial Park.

Other than a pair of low-cut white tennis shoes, no clothing was located. What was discovered, however, was an 11-foot length of twine with a knotted loop immediately adjacent to the hand and wrist bones.

Jones’ murder is also linked to the killing of Richard “Dickie” Hovey. In May of 1968 the 17-year-old’s skeletal remains were found along the hedgerow of a farmer’s field near Schomberg, Ontario.

Hovey was also found unclothed with his hands bound by shoelaces. He was last seen by witnesses getting into a Chevrolet Corvair with a muscular black male on Yorkville Avenue in June of 1967.

“We know that Richard Hovey was last seen getting into a vehicle, that I believe to be our person responsible for his murder, about five blocks from where Jones lived,”  Det. Sgt. Dave Quigley revealed Monday.

It wasn’t until July of 1980 that the skeletal remains of a third young man were found in a wooded area near Markham.

He was discovered unclothed with articles of clothing placed nearby. This victim was estimated to have been killed between one and two years earlier.

In the summer of 1967, two other young men were picked up from downtown Toronto in the Bay and College area and were taken to rural areas where they were attacked. These offences and victims were very similar to the cases being investigated near Schomberg, Coboconk and Markham.

All three murder cases were reactivated in 2006 after similarities in the victims and crime scenes emerged.

The same year facial reconstructions were created and released leading to the identification of Hovey and now, of Jones.

The latter’s brother, Oscar, always held out hope that his sibling simply started a new life elsewhere. But the confirmation his family had always feared for so long was still devastating. “You kind of feel after he got a bit older and grew up, he’d get back to his family,” the now-66-year-old confirms.

He had reason to believe his brother was still alive because they’d had an argument at a wedding just prior to his disappearance. “I was giving him heck because he was quitting school and going away. He wasn’t happy with me,” Jones recalls from his home near Sudbury. “Now that we find out… he was murdered, it’s very hard to take.”

Cops are appealing to the public for help in tracing Jones’ activities during his time in Toronto as well as assistance in identifying the 1980 murder victim.

A reward of $50,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murders of Hovey and Jones.

Call the OPP Criminal Investigation Branch at 1-888-310-1122 or the York Regional Police at 1-866-876-5423.

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Further information about the victims is featured here .