On January 27, 1998, 23-year old Renee Sweeney was attacked in her workplace, the Adults Only Video located at 1500 Paris Street, Greater Sudbury.
The male suspect entered the store at approximately 11:15 a.m.
Two individuals entered the store at approximately 11:30 a.m. and saw the suspect in front of the main counter. The suspect made his way to the front door of the establishment, exited the building turning right and began running towards Paris Street. The two individuals then noticed Renee on the floor behind the counter, bleeding and called 911. Greater Sudbury Police arrived on scene. Renee was pronounced dead at the scene.
The suspect was described as a Caucasian male, in his early twenties, approximately 5’10” to 6’0” tall, with a slim build and short, brown hair. On the day of the incident, he was last seen wearing metal-framed glasses, jeans, a grey hooded sweatshirt underneath a lightweight, teal-coloured jacket and running shoes.
To date, over 1,800 persons of interest have been eliminated as suspects. Investigators have followed up on all tips and leads with no positive identification of the male suspect.
The DNA collected at the scene has never been matched to anyone in the available DNA databases.
Criminal Investigations of this nature are ultimately solved by forensic, evidence gathering, witness statements and through Public assistance. However, as technology evolves, Police Services must adopt proven innovative forensic technologies in order to expand on standard investigative techniques.
The Greater Sudbury Police Service through Our Shared Commitment to Community Safety and Well-being constantly strives to develop collaborative partnerships, be at the forefront of innovation and to continuously improve and increase community engagement in Greater Sudbury.
Greater Sudbury Police Investigators learned of a new and innovative service that can generate a composite of a suspect by providing the suspect’s DNA to the laboratory.
Greater Sudbury Police Investigators have recently sought the services of Parabon NanoLabs (Parabon), a DNA technology company in Virginia that specializes in DNA Phenotyping; the process of predicting physical appearance and ancestry from unidentified DNA evidence. Law enforcement agencies use the company’s Snapshot™ DNA Phenotyping Service (Snapshot) to narrow suspect lists and generate leads in criminal investigations.
Using DNA evidence from this investigation, Snapshot produced trait predictions for the associated person of interest (POI). Individual predictions were made for the subject’s ancestry, eye color, hair color, skin color, freckling, and face shape. By combining these attributes of appearance, a Snapshot composite was produced depicting what the POI may have looked like at 25-years old and with an average body-mass index (BMI) of 22. These default values were used because age and BMI cannot be determined from DNA.
It is important to note that Snapshot composites are scientific approximations of appearance based on DNA, and are not likely to be exact replicas of appearance. Environmental factors such as; smoking, drinking, diet, and other non-environmental factors such as; facial hair, hairstyle, scars, etc. cannot be predicted by DNA analysis and may cause further variation between the subject’s predicted and actual appearances.
The Greater Sudbury Police Service hopes that the Snapshot generated by Parabon will lead to new information and tips that will assist investigators in identifying the male suspect.
Citizens with new information regarding the incident or the suspect are urged to contact the Greater Sudbury Police Tip Line at 705-675-9171 extension 2320. Citizens can also provide information anonymously through Sudbury Rainbow Crime Stoppers at 705-222-TIPS (8477).
