DNA testing confirms West Virginia man raped, killed Canadian teen in 1975
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — UPDATE: 5/23/2023 - 1:45 p.m.
Longueil police announced on Tuesday that DNA testing confirms that a West Virginia man who has been dead since 1982 raped and killed a teenage girl in one Canada's most notorious cold cases.
The body of Franklin Romine was exhumed May 2 at a rural cemetery in Putnam County after DNA evidence linked him to the death of 16-year-old Sharron Prior. However, police and prosecutors petitioned a Putnam County judge to exhume Romine's body to retrieve DNA from his remains in hopes of conclusively determining he was Prior's killer.
Members of the police department were joined by members of Prior's family to make the announcement.
"Moreover, this outcome of the investigation, which many believed unlikely, would not have been possible without the hard work of the many of investigators who multiplied the requests, meetings with suspects and analyzes of all kinds in this case over the last 48 years," a release from the department said. "It would have been just as improbable to obtain such a success without the invaluable collaboration of the LSJML and the great professionalism of its members at each stage of our investigation."
Police said the results were immediately communicated to the Prior family, including her mother, Yvonne Prior, who is now 85-years-old. Her mother and siblings made it their life's mission to solve the case and find the person responsible for Sharron's murder.
"The solving of Sharron's case will never bring Sharron back but knowing that her killer is no longer on this earth and cannot kill anymore brings us to somewhat of a closure of this long chapter of our lives," Doreen Prior, Sharron's sister said.
"Mrs. Yvonne Prior held multiple public appearances over the years so that the tragic story of her daughter, Sharron, never sinks into oblivion," the release said. "It was during a private meeting with many emotions, that the investigators of SPAL's Unsolved Homicide Case Unit were able to confirm that Sharron's assassin had finally been 100% identified," police said.
"We are still grieving the loss of our daughter and sister who was savagely murdered," Doreen Prior said during the news conference. "Sharron has given us strength for the last 48 years and especially today."
Police noted that since Romine is deceased, the confirmation of his identity officially closes the cold case and would not lead to any charges in Canadian courts.
On Sunday, Eyewitness News will air a special report at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. that explores Romine's crimes in West Virginia and what police are doing now to see if he could be linked to any unsolved cases in the state.
"I have already received some phone calls from cold case investigators from West Virginia and Ohio and things like that," Det. Sgt. Eric Racicot told Eyewitness News.
Watch below as Longueuil Police talk one-on-one with Leslie Rubin following the announcement:
ORINGIAL STORY: 5/23/2023 - 12:00 p.m.
Police in Canada are set to announce a significant update in a 1975 cold case that has recently linked a West Virginia man who has been dead since 1982 as the primary suspect.
The body of Franklin Romine was exhumed May 2 at a rural cemetery in Putnam County after DNA evidence linked him to the death of 16-year-old Sharron Prior.
On March 29, 1975, the teen left her home in Point St. Charles, a neighborhood in Montreal, Quebec, to meet friends at a nearby pizza parlor. She never made it to the restaurant.
Three days later, her partially nude body was found in a field in Longueuil, Quebec, about 15 miles from where she was kidnapped. Longueuil police said she had been raped and beaten to death. She was lying on her back in the snow, and her pants had been removed. Police said her underwear was found hanging from a nearby tree.
"This press conference will be of great public interest in the context of this investigation, which began now 48 years ago," Sgt. Francis Charette said in a release to members of the Canadian press.When Longueuil police returned to Canada following Romine's exhumation, they estimated it would be at least two weeks before results were back from a lab in Montreal.
The case would eventually turn into one of Canada's most high-profile cold cases that saw more than 100 suspects investigated but never any arrests.
A DNA profile removed from a T-shirt used to restrain Prior and a sample from her pants and underwear, made it possible to target the last name of the suspect, according to Putnam County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Sorsaia.
"Then they got the name Romine, so they just started looking at the criminal records," Sorsaia said. "Well, they see this guy being very active in Canada and Montreal in the ‘70s - violent activity, in and out of jail. Then they start looking at the West Virginia criminal records, and then they see that he beat and raped a girl in Parkersburg and he got convicted of it."
Noah and Michael Romine, two of Romine’s surviving brothers, voluntarily gave their DNA samples to police in December 2022.
"The comparison of the profiles showed several similarities between the profiles of Noah and Michael and the suspect's profile that was also linked to the blue shirt sample of the victim's and from the samples taken from the victim's pants and panties. The results showed that it is 140 million times more likely to come from the brother of Noah and Michael Romine than any other random person in the Caucasian population," court documents stated.
In March, Sorsaia filed a petition for exhumation in Putnam County Circuit Court to exhume Romine's body that was located at the Pine Grove Cemetery in Fraziers Bottom in an effort to retrieve DNA from his remains to conclusively determine he was Prior's killer. Judge Phillip Stowers granted the petition following a hearing on April 6 that included testimony fromSgt. Eric Racicot, a detective with the Longueuil Police Department.
Racicot testified that, in other words, “the profile of the killer obtained on the blue shirt comes from the brother of Noah and Michael Romine, but it's not one of them.”
The Romine siblings were not in favor of the exhumation. They sent a letter to the court saying they "vehemently protest" the exhumation of his remains.
"We were told that the family of the victim wants closure. We completely understand and have deepest sympathy for the family. However, we fail to understand why this is necessary as we’re told that if they do exhume him, there might not be enough DNA to prove anything," the letter stated.
Born in Huntington in 1946, Romine had a criminal record that started when he was a child. By 1964, when he was 18, he had made his first attempted escape from the West Virginia Penitentiary, according to law enforcement records provided to Eyewitness News.
In February 1974, Parkersburg Police said he broke into a house and raped a woman inside her apartment on the city's southside. An Associated Press report said he was released on a $2,500 bond two months later and fled to Canada. Prior was raped and killed a year later.
“So, we have window in his freedom corresponding to the death of the child in Canada," Sorsaia previously said.
Canadian border officials captured him in October 1975 and turned him over to the FBI, according to published reports. He was extradited back to West Virginia in January 1976 to stand trial for the charges out of Wood County. He was initially convicted during a trial for rape and burglary, but the West Virginia Supreme Court reversed the conviction in 1980. and awarded him a new trial due to an incorrect instruction that was given to the jury.
In April 1981, however, Romine pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault in exchange for the burglary charge to be dismissed. He was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison but released soon after with credit for time served. He died in Verdun, Montreal in 1982. A cause of death has not been determined.
The announcement from Longueuil Police is set for 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Reporter Leslie Rubin will be following the updates and have a live report on Eyewitness News at 6.
On Sunday, Eyewitness News will air a special report at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. that explores Romine's crimes in West Virginia and what police are doing now to see if he could be linked to any unsolved cases in the state.
