Beverly Lynn Smith

Case background and investigation

Beverly Lynn Smith, 22, lived with her husband, Douglas, and their 10-month-old daughter, Rebecca, in a small brick house in Raglan, a community north of Oshawa, Ontario. According to CBC News and The Globe and Mail, Douglas last saw her at about 7 p.m. on December 9, 1974, holding their daughter as he left for his shift at the General Motors plant.

Later that evening she was found dead in the kitchen from a single gunshot wound to the head; Rebecca was found asleep in her crib. The Globe and Mail reported that another neighbour found the body. According to the 2022 Prime Video documentary series about the case, as summarized by ComingSoon, Douglas had asked neighbours to check on her after she did not answer his calls, no weapon was found, and nothing appeared to have been taken.

The killing was the first homicide investigation for the Durham Regional Police, which had been created earlier in 1974. Police said the file had never been shelved. In March 2008, Durham police charged Alan Dale Smith, a former neighbour who was not related to the victim, with second-degree murder. The Crown withdrew that charge about five months later, telling the court there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.

Police then ran a so-called Mr. Big undercover operation, in which officers posed as members of a criminal organization and befriended Alan Smith. In December 2009 he was arrested again and charged with first-degree murder. He was held in custody while the case proceeded.

At trial, the judge found that his confessions were the product of coercion and excluded them. With that evidence gone, the Crown concluded there was no reasonable prospect of conviction, and on July 28, 2014, Alan Smith was acquitted, CBC News reported. No one else has been charged, and Beverly Lynn Smith's death remains Durham Region's oldest unsolved homicide.