‘This haunts us to this day’ — 50 years ago, a Waterloo girl was murdered. A biker was suspected, but no one was ever charged
WATERLOO - Suzanne Aldworth went out to celebrate her birthday with friends and never made it back home.
The Waterloo girl's naked, badly beaten body was found in a snow-covered ditch just north of St. Agatha 50 years ago today, on Nov. 19, 1972.
She was 16.
This haunts us to this day," says Susan Szalay, who attended Waterloo Collegiate Institute with Aldworth. She was young and very vulnerable. She was a little thing. Nobody deserves what happened to her."
Aldworth's murder is one of Waterloo Region's oldest unsolved homicides.
Twenty-five years ago, police said investigations revealed a member of the Henchmen biker gang murdered Aldworth.
There is no doubt in my mind he is the killer," former Waterloo Regional Police homicide detective George Schiestel said back then.
But he said police couldn't prove it without a witness or DNA evidence.
Walking home
On the night of Friday, Nov. 17, 1972, Aldworth was celebrating her 16th birthday with her boyfriend and two girlfriends at the Kent Hotel (now the Huether) on King Street North in uptown Waterloo, according to an in-depth 1997 Record story.
Her boyfriend left the celebration around 1 a.m. because he had to work in the morning.
Around 1:15 a.m., Aldworth and her girlfriends went to a nearby Chinese restaurant for a bite to eat.
Aldworth, who looked older than her age, had been drinking and flirted with a man at a nearby table.
Just before 2 a.m., she crossed King Street, picked up a pay phone and called home, likely to tell her parents she planned to sleep at a friend's house. One of her brothers heard the phone ring but didn't pick up in time.
Aldworth's friends thought she would return to the restaurant.
Instead, she likely began walking to her home on Allen Street West.
She either got into a car willingly because she knew the people, or was forced into a vehicle by people she didn't know or by people she knew but didn't want to associate with," Ontario Provincial Police Det. Insp. Andrew Maksymchuk, who reviewed the case, said in 1991.
Body found
Two girls on horseback found Aldworth's body in a ditch off a country road.
They thought it was a mannequin sticking out of the snow," Szalay, 66, said in an interview this week. They rode closer with their horses and realized that it was a body."
Aldworth had been beaten with a blunt object and died of a fractured skull. Bruises on her body suggested she put up a fight. She had not been sexually assaulted, police previously said.
We were all shocked on the Monday (Nov. 20) when we found out what had happened to her," Szalay said. As you can well imagine, that was the main topic of discussion in school for a long time."
Trish Walker, now 66, was a grade above Aldworth at Waterloo Collegiate Institute.
For a bunch of us girls, at the time being the age that we were, we were always out kind of partying away and never really gave two thoughts about what could happen," the Waterloo woman said in an interview this week.
I was always out kind of whoop-de-doing it up and of course my parents were quite concerned at that point (after the murder). They were very hesitant to even let me go out at all. That (the murder) really brought it to the forefront that you just never know ..."
Candice Lawrence, also 66, worked at the bowling alley/pool hall in the basement of a building near what is now Waterloo Town Square. She often saw Aldworth there.
I chatted with her many times at the pool hall," Lawrence said in an interview this week. She was a very nice young woman, very pretty."
After Aldworth was murdered, I remember being very scared," Lawrence said. Nothing like that had ever happened in Waterloo."
Henchmen implicated
Years ago, Det. Const. Neil Squirrell of regional police said he believed at least two men were involved in the murder. One killed himself in 1979.
The suspect who was still alive was a member of the Henchmen biker gang in Kitchener in the 1970s, police said in 1997.
Squirrell had reopened the case in 1993 and reviewed more than 700 police interviews. He also interviewed other people, leading him to conclude the biker killed Aldworth.
Police didn't name the suspect but in 1993, Squirrell and OPP Const. Paul Barker found him living in a rooming house in western Canada. After they interviewed him, he disappeared.
The man was in his mid-40s in 1993. If he's alive, he is now in his mid-70s.
Police previously said Aldworth had known the suspect and hated him.
Lawrence said the pool hall/bowling alley was a very popular hangout for youth and other people, like bikers."
The Henchmen had a significant presence in Kitchener-Waterloo, she said.
There were lots and lots of rumours going around after (the murder), like the Henchmen had something to do with it," Lawrence said.
She recalled reading a newspaper story decades ago about how police were investigating the killing but everybody was too afraid to talk - it was speculated because of the Henchmen."
In 1976, four years after Aldworth's murder, Waterloo Regional Police raided the Henchmen clubhouse on Highland Road West in Kitchener, seizing 16 sticks of dynamite and 10 blasting caps. Two years later, police again raided the clubhouse. The raids apparently were not connected to the murder.
In the second raid, the bikers claimed they were kicked and punched by officers at the police station. They also said they were bitten by a police dog.
Photos of the bikers on their knees against a wall were sent anonymously to The Record. The photos, published on the front page, led to the police chief, Syd Brown, being fired. A court later ruled Brown should be reinstated, although he was ordered not to report to work.
DNA
Given that the murder was 50 years ago, some of the main players are no longer alive, including at least one of the suspects and some of the investigators.
Over the years, more than 100 officers from various police services have investigated the murder. To charge the suspect, police need either a witness or DNA evidence.
Squirrell, in 2002, hadn't ruled out the possibility that improved technology might allow police to get evidence from Aldworth's clothing, which was found near her body.
But he said police didn't have enough evidence to get a warrant ordering the suspect to give a sample of his DNA.
If not now, when?'
Lawrence, the former bowling alley employee, moved to London, Ont., decades ago but still thinks about Aldworth's murder, especially in November.
When you're 16 and you hear about this person that you know, it just stays with you," she said. Around this time of year, I think about her and wonder if they'll ever find out who killed her."
Szalay, who attended school with Aldworth, hopes someone will provide information that will, finally, lead to an arrest.
I feel that this is our last chance," the Waterloo woman said. I really don't think that 10 years from now, on the 60th anniversary, that any of the major players will still be alive.
I can see how people may still be a bit fearful (to come forward), but I think it's time. If not now, when?"
The Ontario Provincial Police service is in charge of the case.
Unfortunately there have been no new developments that we can share regarding the tragic death of Suzanne Aldworth in 1972," OPP spokesperson Bill Dickson said Friday.
The OPP never closes an unsolved homicide. The file is considered active until it is resolved. In this case a major case manager from the OPP Criminal Investigation Branch is assigned."
Investigators will follow all leads and tips, Dickson said.
The OPP's goal is to resolve all unsolved homicides, preferably with a conviction, and bring resolution to the family and friends of the victim and to the community," he said.
If anyone has any information that has not been brought to the attention of investigators in the past, we would encourage them to come forward."
The number to call is 1-888-310-1122.
With files from former Record reporter Frances Barrick
Gordon Paul is a Waterloo Region-based reporter focusing on crime for The Record. Reach him via email: gpaul@therecord.com