‘Your free life is done’: Victim’s family tells cold-case killer at Toronto sentencing

In a packed Toronto courtroom, family and friends of Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour addressed convicted killer Joseph George Sutherland Monday, sharing how the unsolved murders of the two women who lived alone, four months and roughly four kilometres apart in 1983, left them scared, empty and grief-stricken for nearly 40 years.

“You murdered and assaulted two wonderful women and went on to live your life. Your free life is done,” said Ben Tice, Susan Tice’s oldest son, remembering his mother as a light force whose tragic death has left him feeling exhausted, depressed and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Sutherland sat quietly in the prisoner’s box with his head down, gazing at the floor. For nearly four decades, Toronto police knew Tice and Gilmour were attacked and sexually assaulted by someone who had broken into their respective homes prior to their killing, but did not know who was responsible.

In 2000, DNA retrieved from both women confirmed the same offender was responsible for both murders but there were no matches in the National DNA Data Bank. It wasn’t until 2021, after police submitted a sample of the offender’s DNA to a U.S. company for analysis using a new technology called investigative genetic genealogy, that investigators were finally able to identify the Sutherland family as persons of interest.

Then, through a process of elimination, detectives were able to narrow down Joseph as the person with that DNA. Sutherland was served with a DNA warrant in November 2022, and after giving a blood sample, confessed to a friend who was a retired OPP officer that he had committed the two murders. His friend contacted police and made arrangements for Sutherland’s arrest.

The 62-year-old pleaded guilty last October to two counts of second-degree murder.

Tice, a 45-year-old social worker and mother of four, was found stabbed to death in her Grace Street home on Aug. 17, 1983. According to an agreed statement of facts read out in court when Sutherland pleaded guilty, she had been attacked in her bedroom and raped. She also had defensive wounds on her hands and head and had been stabbed 13 times.

Gilmour, 22, was found dead in the bedroom of the apartment she was renting on Hazelton Avenue on Dec. 20, 1983. She had also been attacked and raped. Her mouth and hands bound, Sutherland stabbed her two times before making his getaway.

Neither woman knew one another, and neither woman knew Sutherland.

At the time of his arrest, investigators with the Toronto police cold case unit said Sutherland had been living in Toronto in 1983 and had never been charged with or convicted of any other crime.

Kaelin McCowan, Gilmour’s younger brother, recalled the horror of what it was like to learn his sister had been murdered in 1983 and then the years of uncertainty of not knowing who did it.

“With each new development came hope and finally disappointment and a re-hashment of our pain,” McCowan said, referring to it as a 40-year marathon from the time of his sister’s murder until the day of Sutherland’s arrest.

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Kirsty Spence, Susan Tice’s niece, recalled how her father went looking for Tice after she failed to show up at her parents’ home in Brampton for a scheduled dinner in 1983.

“I can only imagine how harrowing it was to discover his sister-in-law as he did. The back door ajar, calling her name, no response. The horror to discover her lifeless body and eventually learned she had been murdered.”

Gilmour’s older brother Sean McCowan’s voice trembled as he turned and addressed Sutherland.

“How do you put into words something you’ve been thinking about for 40 years?” he said.

Sean McCowan said he will never find forgiveness given that Sutherland didn’t come forward on his own, and carried on with his life, something his sister never had a chance to do.

“The only reason we’re here is because of Det. Sgt. Steve Smith and his team, who never gave up looking for you,” Sean said, choking back tears.

Justice Maureen Forestell will consider the victim impact statements in deciding on an appropriate period of parole ineligibility. Second-degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence but the judge must decide on an appropriate period between 10 and 25 years.

The Crown and defence will be making submissions on what they feel an appropriate range will be before the judge delivers her sentence.

Crown Attorney Michael Cantlon gave a statement to the media at Monday’s hearing.

“At the end of the sentencing process, we anticipate that he will be held accountable for the longstanding damage he has caused to these families and to everyone else impacted in our community.

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