The Windsor Police Service is renewing the reward to help solve four unsolved homicide cases in the city that date back to the 1970s.
The reward for each case is $10,000. It would be given out in the event that information leads to the arrest and conviction of a suspect.
Inspector Brad Hill says it's important to renew interest in these kinds of cases.
"When we bring [these cases] back out in the media, someone who thinks that what they told us at the time wasn't important or they think of something that they didn't remember at the time and that gives us a point to start over and restart the investigation," says Hill.
The cases span from 1971-2003.
"Investigations are never complete and they are never closed but they go dormant and when we get new information we will assign a team and follow up any information that comes," says Hill.
Police continue to look for a suspect in the brutal 1971 murder of six-year-old Ljubica Topic. She was last seen on May 14, 1971, playing outside her Drouillard Rd. home with her older brother. A man approached the two children and offered Ljubica money to come with him. Four hours later, after an extensive search by police and the community, Ljubica's body was found severely beaten in the rear yard of 1690 Hickory Rd.
In 1980, 25-year-old Kirk Knight went missing. Police believe he was kidnapped in retaliation for a shooting of a known motorcycle gang member. His body was later pulled from the Detroit River. He had been bound, restrained, and anchored with cement blocks.
In 1982, Marlene Sweet, 31, and her 7-year-old son Jason were found badly decomposed in their apartment in east Windsor. There were multiple suspects in the violent homicide but police said they lacked the crucial piece of evidence to lay charges.
Finally, police continue to investigate the 2003 murder of Debilleanne "Dee Dee" Williamson, 31, and her 5-year-old son Brandon "Xavier" Rucker. Again there were a number of possible suspects but police have not been able to identify the person responsible.
Hill says he worked on this case and it still haunts him to this day.
"We probably know who the murderer is, we just can't prove who the murderer is. There's multiple persons of interest and we truly believe that one of those persons of interest is responsible we just don't have the one piece of evidence that we would require to successfully handle it," says Hill. "That was a brutal crime and a little boy was killed really for no reason other than to prevent him from being a witness to that crime. So that still bothers me."
For more information about the circumstance surrounding these cold cases, visit the Windsor police website here.
