A stranger told her he had something to give her. She never came home.
On the evening of January 6, 1956, 5-year-old Susan Cadieux was abducted while playing outside St. Mary's School in London, Ontario, Canada. Her murder remains one of the city's oldest unsolved cases.
The Abduction
Susan was playing in the schoolyard with her two older brothers and a neighbor, Virginia, just across the street from her family's home. Around 7:45 p.m., a tall, thin, unshaven man in a brown overcoat approached the group, telling them he had an appointment to meet a priest at the nearby church. He spoke to Susan, who told the other children he was going to give her something. When one of the other children slipped on the ice nearby, distracting the group briefly, Susan walked away with the man. She was never seen alive again.
Her brothers ran home when she didn't return, and a search began that night, eventually involving hundreds of volunteers, soldiers, and railway workers searching through the early morning hours.
Discovery
Susan's body was found the next morning at a construction yard roughly nine blocks from where she'd disappeared. Her outer clothing was torn, and a pair of jeans she'd been wearing beneath her snowsuit were missing. She had been sexually assaulted, and the cold had frozen tears to her face. Her official cause of death was exposure; investigators determined she had died less than three hours before being found.
A Composite Sketch, and No Arrest
Police developed a composite sketch of the man seen leading Susan away, describing him as white, 30 to 40 years old, tall and thin, wearing a light brown overcoat, unbuckled black galoshes, and a dark fur-lined hat. Despite the sketch and an extensive contemporary investigation, no one was ever arrested or charged.
A Suspect, Linked to a Famous Case
More than 20 years later, police publicly named the late Alexander Kalichuk, a former air force sergeant with a documented history of sexual offenses dating back to 1950, as a suspect in Susan's death. Kalichuk was separately named in later investigative reporting, including a Fifth Estate documentary, as a possible overlooked suspect in the 1959 murder of 12-year-old Lynne Harper — the case for which Steven Truscott, then 14, was wrongfully convicted before eventually being exonerated decades later. Kalichuk was stationed near both crime locations at the relevant times but was never charged in either case. He died in 1975.
DNA Testing, No Match
Investigators eventually developed a DNA profile from evidence in Susan's case and uploaded it to Canada's National DNA Database as well as databases in the United States, but no match has ever been identified.
A Case Still Being Investigated
In 2023, a group of amateur researchers in London, calling themselves the Sleuths of London Ontario, began digging further into the case using local archives, drawing renewed public and media attention nearly 70 years after Susan's death. London Police Service continues to list the case as unsolved and open to new information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has anyone ever been charged in Susan Cadieux's death?
No. Despite an extensive contemporary investigation and a later DNA profile, no one has ever been charged.
Is Susan Cadieux's case connected to the Steven Truscott case?
Not officially. A suspect named in her case, Alexander Kalichuk, was separately identified in later reporting as a possible overlooked suspect in the murder of Lynne Harper, the case for which Steven Truscott was wrongfully convicted, but no formal connection between the two cases has ever been established.
Is DNA evidence available in this case?
Yes. A DNA profile has been developed and entered into Canadian and U.S. databases, but no match has been found as of the most recent reporting.