Murders remain a mystery 44 years later
Wendy Tedford and Donna Stearne were 17 when they were found shot to death, and police haven’t yet identified their killer
There are more than 600 unsolved murders going back to the late 1950s on file with the Toronto Police Service Homicide Squad — the cold-blooded killing of teenage best friends Wendy Tedford and Donna Stearne among them. The file remains open and police are still seeking clues that could solve these murders that took place nearly 45 years ago.
On Thursday, April 26, 1973, Wendy Tedford and Donna Stearne, both17, went for a late night Coca-Cola at the 1950s-style diner Sit ’n Eat just north of Wilson Ave. at Keelegate Dr.
The inseparable friends had planned an evening of shopping and a sleepover at Wendy’s house. But something went terribly wrong. The lifeless bodies of the two young women were discovered the next morning, in a rubble-strewn field about two kilometres from the diner, by a Grade 10 student on his way to Downsview Secondary School. Tony Iscaro was taking a shortcut through Downsview field when he stumbled across the bodies lying side by side.
“I didn’t even take a good look,” Iscaro told the Star a few days later at his school. “I took off — I was scared stiff.”
Wendy had been shot twice in the neck and was found face-down with her arms at her sides. Donna had a bullet wound in the back of her head and was on her back. Police found empty shells from a .38calibre revolver nearby but no signs of sexual assault or robbery. Both young women were fully clothed, and two purses containing small amounts of cash were found at the scene. Police also found semen at the scene. In a recent interview, Toronto Police Service Homicide Squad Det. Sgt. Stacy Gallant would not say where this DNA was found as the case is still under investigation. At the time, the Star reported that the sample taken did not match the DNA of either of the girls’ on-again, off-again boyfriends.
Autopsies revealed that both girls had been shot at close range.
Donna’s father, Jack Stearne, who died in 2010, told police his daughter had left the house around 7 p.m. Thursday with her school books. She was going to Wendy’s place, then shopping and would stay the night at her friend’s home. “There was no reason to kill her, none whatsoever. Donna had no enemies,” Jack Stearne told police.
Donna was the second of four children and a Grade 12 student at Downsview Secondary School. She and Wendy had been tight since attending C.W. Jeffreys Secondary School four years before.
Wendy had dropped out of school in 1971, following her father’s death from cancer. Wendy was the third of four sisters and had moved out of her mother’s apartment on Sheppard Ave. W. and in with her older sister Shirley and her 4year-old son on Falstaff Ave. in the Downsview area. Wendy had been working at the Towers department store business office on Orfus Rd. for the three months before she was murdered.
Shirley last saw the girls that Thursday night when they left the apartment for the Yorkdale Shopping Centre. Wendy and Donna were considered typical teenagers of the ’70s. They hitchhiked — not unusual in that time — and were known to party with friends. It was rare but not unheard of for the girls to stay out all night, so when they didn’t return home that Thursday night, no one was concerned.
Another sister, Linda Harris, did become concerned when she didn’t hear from Wendy. Linda called Towers on the Friday and was told Wendy hadn’t shown up for work. Linda then called police.
Detectives were able to piece together much of the girls’ final hours through evidence and interviews.
They determined that Wendy and Donna had gone downtown and bought a black sweater for Shirley, whose 25th birthday was the following day. The detectives found a receipt for the sweater in Tedford’s purse from a store on Yonge St. north of College St.
The girls took the subway to Yorkdale Shopping Centre, where they spent several hours.
They were spotted at 10:45 p.m., boarding the northbound Keele St. bus at Lawrence Ave. W. They got off north of Wilson Ave. at Keelegate Dr. and went into the Sit ’n Eat diner, a popular teenage hangout, where they ordered two CocaColas. A witness remembered seeing them around 11 p.m., but no one recalled seeing them leave, the Star reported.
Heather Korenblum, whose Winston Park Blvd. house backed onto Downsview field where the girls’ bodies were found, told police she thought she heard a noise around midnight on Thursday. In retrospect, it could have been four shots but at the time she was unsure of what it was.
Another neighbour, Ann Curley, told the Star she heard what sounded like dull thuds around 11 p.m., “like something hitting the ground.” She was used to hearing sounds from the nearby highway and didn’t pay any attention.
Immediately after discovering the girls’ bodies, the area was cordoned off and about two-dozen police officers did a line sweep for clues and weapons. Officers also went door to door in search of witnesses. Three days later and after getting nowhere, the Metro Police Commission posted notices in newspapers, in shops and on utility polls in the area offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of the killer.
With few clues and no motives, one week after the bodies were found, police set up a spot check and stopped late-night motorists hoping to find witnesses to aid their round-the-clock search. Police suspected that the girls were picked up while hitchhiking.
The best friends, who were inseparable in life, were buried side by side on May 1, 1973, in Beechwood Cemetery on Jane St. in Concord, Ont.
A year into the investigation, police had interviewed about 500 people and were no further ahead.
Around a year after the murder, a revolver found on the side of a highway near Windsor, Ont., was identified as the weapon used to kill Wendy and Donna. Analysis of the bullet riflings — the spiral grooves on the inside of the barrel — revealed that the six-shot, .38-calibre Colt revolver with a six-inch barrel had also been used in a break and enter in Windsor, Ont., a few months before Wendy and Donna were murdered. But it could not be traced to any other crimes and the trail of clues ended there. But the police search has not. Det. Gallant occasionally gets tips from the public regarding the double murder and he has kept in contact with the victims’ families.
Gallant revisits the data from time to time. But as time passes, memories fade and witnesses (and criminals) pass away, he said.
Family members want justice and to find someone accountable, Gallant says. “I’ve seen family members destroyed,” he said. “I’ve seen families fall apart.”
Gallant urges anyone with information on the 1973 murders of Wendy Tedford and Donna Stearne to call Homicide at 416-808-7400.
The police “may be only one name away,” from solving the case, he said.
“I didn’t even take a good look. I took off — I was scared stiff.” TONY ISCARO GRADE 10 STUDENT WHO FOUND THE BODIES, IN AN INTERVIEW WITH THE STAR