DNA Doe Project identifies Nation River Lady in 1975 cold case

A nearly 50-year-old cold case has been solved with the identification of a woman whose body was found near Ottawa.

She has been identified as Lalla Jewell Parchman Langford after OPP investigators shared the victim’s DNA samples with the DNA Doe Project and databases for genetic genealogy were searched.

“When we got close, we discovered newspaper articles that specifically mentioned the disappearance of Jewell Langford. She was practically there waiting for us to find her,” C. Lauritsen, team leader at DNA Doe Project, said in a press release.

“The heartbreaking thing is that Jewell’s mother has clearly been looking for her for years and sadly passed away without knowing what happened to her daughter,” Lauritsen added.

Langford was found on May 3, 1975, by a local rancher, near the Highway 417 bridge—where officers found blood—south of Casselman, about 34 miles (55 km) east of Ottawa.

Her hands and feet were bound with ties and she had been strangled with a flat, plastic-coated TV cable. Her body was wrapped in two pieces of green cloth and two towels – one with an image of an Irish toast and the second with several flowers. Also included was a J-cloth, black coaxial cable, and curtain rod near Langford’s body, estimated to have been in the water for about a year.

She became known as the Nation River Lady and in 2017, the OPP reopened the case to find out who she was and the details of her murder.

A 3D clay facial reproduction of Langford was generated by the OPP and released to the public in a call for information.

But the investigation remained stalled until police teamed up with the DNA Doe Project, a non-profit initiative dedicated to identifying the unidentified remains of John and Jane Doe.

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