Timeline of the case
1974: Beverly Smith is shot once in the back of her head in Raglan, near Oshawa. Her 10-month-old baby, Rebecca, is found in the next room. 1974-1975: Durham Regional Police investigate the killing, but don’t gather enough information for an arrest. The case goes cold. 1986: CrimeStoppers profiles Beverly’s unsolved murder, prompting several calls that gave detectives new clues. The investigation continues, but no arrests are made. 1988: Police arrest Doug Daigle. According to police documents, Daigle was a drug dealer and police had received a tip that he killed Beverly. He was put in jail with an undercover cop, but did not confess to the murder and was released. 2007: Durham Regional Police officially reopen Beverly Smith’s cold case. Insp. Dave Kimmerly proposes a team of dedicated officers who would work on the case “from scratch and see where it headed.” February 2008: Police re-interview neighbour Linda Smith, who said that on the night of the murder, her thenhusband, Alan Smith, had left the house for about an hour. She said she heard a loud bang, then saw him putting a gun in his car. March 2008: Alan Smith is charged with the second-degree murder of Beverly Smith. July 2008: Alan Smith is released from jail after the Crown drops the charge. The case against him had unraveled after his wife recanted her incriminating statement and, at one point, claimed to have killed Beverly herself. February 2009: Durham police launch a Mr. Big sting against Alan Smith, an undercover operation called “Project Fearless” that aims to extract a confession. July 2009: Alan Smith gives the first of two confessions to the murder, saying he killed Beverly with another man, to steal marijuana in the house. November 2009: Alan Smith gives a second confession, saying he alone killed Beverly to stop her from talking about an affair he was having. December 2009: Alan Smith is charged with first-degree murder. June 2014: Ontario Superior Court judge Bruce Glass rules the confessions cannot be admitted as evidence in Alan Smith’s trial. The Durham police investigation had been an abuse of process and violated his charter rights, Glass rules. July 2014: Alan Smith is acquitted after the Crown concedes there is no reasonable prospect of conviction. July 31, 2014: The Supreme Court of Canada places tough new restrictions for trial judges to consider in cases involving a Mr. Big sting — including police conduct during the investigation and the reliability of the confession. January 2016: Alan Smith files a $19-million lawsuit against the Ontario Provincial Police, the police services boards overseeing Durham Regional Police and York Regional Police, the Attorney General of Ontario, nearly a dozen police officers involved in the sting, and three Crown attorneys on the case. With files from the Toronto Star archive