Antoinette Lashley, 32, moved to Montreal from Edmonton in 1986 and got a job in the needle-trade.She met James "Jimmy The Mick" Kairns, 57, a working class guy from The Point/Verdun. His job was delivering early-morning Gazette newspapers on the West Island.
Both were single with kids from previous couplings. He had twin boys and three daughters with Emma Rath, while she had a younger eight-year-old son living with his father in Edmonton.
Lashley moved in with Kairns at his apartment at 2285 St. Matthew.
The couple lived together for eight months when they hit a rough patch and neighbours heard them arguing.
Lashley informed Kairns that she was moving out. She laid a $50 deposit on an apartment on Aylmer Street, where she planned to live with her son, who was coming to town to live with her.
She found Kairns too possessive and switched to another boyfriend, according to friends.
Lashley went missing on July 9, 1986, a day after the big argument. Her body was found 14 days later upstream in the St. Lawrence River.Her remains were in rough condition and were impossible to identity.
Police had bungled and mistakenly reported that Lashley was white skinned and stood 5'6."
So the pathologist at the morgue dismissed the possibility that the 5'1", light-brown skinned body was Lashley.
So Lashley remained listed as a missing person well after her body was found.
Police interviewed Kairns for a possible link to the disappearance but didn't have homicide in mind, as Lashley was still only classified as missing.
However police learned that Kairns had withdrawn his life savings, signed over his delivery business to a son and relocated to Vancouver shortly after Lashley's disappearance. His car was found in Thunder Bay Ontario bearing a license plate stolen in Dorval.
It seemed fishy but police had no grounds to charge him with a crime.
Two years later, in September 30, 1988 Lashley's passport washed up in Tracy, Quebec and police finally identified her as the person they had found in 1986.
Police had little evidence against Kairns but arrested him in Vancouver in January 1990 and charged him with murder.
He was kept in prison in Montreal for eight months until his trial ended.
Theresa Joan Dell'Ece, 38, and another friend testified about the circumstances surrounding Lashley's situation. But the prosecution was doomed, as it was never even established that Lashley was even murdered.
A jury took only a day to clear Kairns of the charges. After being acquitted, Kairns returned to Vancouver where he now lives, now aged about 88.
Please send any input concerning this case to megaforce@gmail.com