Excavation in Bowmanville turns up no new evidence in 1963 cold case
Posted October 18, 2018 10:21 am.
Last Updated October 18, 2018 8:12 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Durham police say an extensive excavation of an area in Bowmanville failed to turn up any additional evidence related to a missing teen investigation dating back from the 1960s.
Noreen Greenley, 13, went missing on Sept. 14, 1963, and police believe she was murdered.
At the time, the Bowmanville Police Department investigated the case but officers were not able to find her. Then, in 2005, the Durham police homicide unit re-examined the case, but it remains unsolved.
Police said they received information that a car may have been buried near Highway 57 and Concession Road 8, near the village of Enniskillen.
“We don’t know where Noreen is and we’re going to do everything we can to find her. And if there’s a slight chance that Noreen was here, buried inside a car, we’re going to look,” Det.-Sgt. Mitch Martin said prior to the excavation on Thursday.
Two trenches were dug on Thursday, one about 150 feet long and another 100 feet long. Each trench went down seven feet and metal detectors which could penetrate another three feet were used but no evidence was located.
Police also looked into a reported deathbed confession from a man who said he buried that car 55 years ago.
“We’ve spoke with the gentleman and his father did not confess to this on his deathbed. He does believe his father buried a car, but he does not believe that his father murdered Noreen,” Martin said.
Myno Van Dyke, who is now a retired police officer, started looking into the case in the 1970s. When he retired in 1998, he decided to take it on full-time.
Van Dyke told 680 NEWS he hopes the family can get some closure soon.
“I know one of the things that really got me was that Noreen’s mother sent a place at the table for Noreen … as long as she was able to do something, she set a place at the table for her, expecting her to come back,” he said.
“I think that kind of tells the story with situations like this. It’s a terrible event that just drags on and on and on for this families.”
Below is the reward posted from 1963.
