Man Linked to Three Historical Homicides

The cases involve the deaths of Christine Prince, Claire Samson and Gracelyn Greenidge, who were killed between 1982 and 1997. The women were not known to each other. Christine Prince, 25, was last seen June 21, 1982, on a streetcar along St. Clair Avenue West. Her body was found the next day in the Rouge River. Investigators say she had been sexually assaulted and struck on the head. Her cause of death was drowning. Prince was from Wales and working as a nanny in Toronto. Claire Samson was 23 years old when she was last seen on early September 1, 1983, near Jarvis and Gerrard streets. Her body was discovered the next day on private land off the 20/21 Sideroad in Oro-Medonte Township. She had been shot twice. Gracelyn Greenidge, 41, was found dead in her Driftwood Avenue apartment on July 29, 1997. She died of blunt force trauma. A co-worker discovered her after she failed to report for her shift as a nursing assistant. Greenidge was originally from Barbados. DNA was collected at each scene, but no suspect was identified at the time. In 2016, DNA from the homicides of Prince and Samson that was previously uploaded to the National DNA databank was matched to an unknown male profile. This prompted a joint investigation between TPS and the OPP. In 2017, the Centre of Forensic Sciences (CFS) further determined that the same offender was also responsible for the homicide of Gracelyn Greenidge. However, progress remained limited due to the condition of the samples and the technology available at the time. In 2022, Othram was engaged to apply emerging genetic genealogy technologies, and in 2025, investigators from TPS were able to identify familial relatives of the offender. On December 3, 2025, the CFS conclusively identified Kenneth Smith as the offender in all three homicides. Smith died in 2019 at age 72 in Windsor, Ontario. If he were alive today, the Toronto Police Service would arrest Kenneth Smith for the homicides of Christine Prince and Gracelyn Greenidge. The OPP would arrest him for the homicide of Claire Samson.