SUNDRE - A 75-year-old Sundre man has admitted killing teenager Pauline Elizabeth Brazeau outside Calgary in 1976.
Ronald James Edwards pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter in Court of King’s Bench in Calgary on March 3. He had been scheduled to go to trial on a charge of non-capital murder in June.
A Métis, single mother from Saskatchewan, Brazeau, 16, was last seen leaving a restaurant near 7th Street and 17th Avenue in southwest Calgary, around 3 a.m. on Jan. 9, 1976.
Her body was found hours later on the Jumping Pound Forestry Road, located about 35 kilometres southwest of Cochrane.
The RCMP Historical Homicide Unit (HHU) and the Calgary Police Service (CPS) laid charges against Edwards in 2023 after uncovering new DNA evidence.
The evidence was revealed through a partnership between the HHU and Othram Inc., a private lab in the United States, alongside work between CPS and two genealogists from Convergence Genetic Genealogy.
According to an agreed statement of facts obtained by the Albertan, Brazeau was last seen leaving Peppe’s restaurant where she worked.
Her body was found by two hunters at about 8 a.m. on Jumping Pound Road.
“Pauline’s body was found laying face down (on) the side of the road,” the statement reads. “There was evidence of significant blood on the ground underneath her body.”
An autopsy conducted the following day found four sharp wounds on the back of the body and five wounds on the front of the body.
The doctor conducting the autopsy determined the cause of death to be hemorrhage due to stab wounds to the heart and lungs.
Edwards was 26 years old at the time of the killing and lived about three kilometres from the Peppe’s restaurant.
In 2005, advances in DNA technology allowed investigators to create a suspect profile from semen collected from the deceased’s body, with the suspect identified as Individual A.
On Dec. 7, 2022 genealogists provided a report that identified Ronald Edwards as Individual A.
Edwards had never surfaced in relation to the investigation into Brazeau’s death prior to that time.
On Oct. 17, 2023 undercover police officers obtained cast-off DNA from the accused by seizing a glass mug from the Sundre A&W after the accused had drunk from it.
The RCMP forensic lab then confirmed that Edward’s’ DNA obtained from the mug was a match to Individual A.
Edwards was arrested at his Sundre home on Nov. 7, 2023 and held in custody.
The statement of facts includes Edwards’ admissions surrounding the stabbing.
“The accused admits that he met Pauline for the first time in the early morning hours on Jan. 9, 1976. He was driving in the area of 17th Avenue and 2nd Street in Calgary when he first saw Pauline standing on the sidewalk. He believed she was a prostitute.
“The accused drove Pauline outside Calgary city limits, in search of a deserted road. The two engaged in consensual sexual intercourse, and Pauline was alive when she exited his vehicle. It was dark outside at the time.
“The accused admits that he was also intoxicated that night, and does not remember many details that occurred. He recalls that the knife used was a four-inch buck knife, she was stabbed outside of his vehicle, and that he panicked when he heard other vehicles on the road. This was not a pre-planned event. He assumed she was dead as he drove away.”
Edwards admitted that he “used a knife to stab Pauline Elizabeth Brazeau in circumstances where there was a reasonable foreseeability of the risk of body harm. His actions caused the death of Pauline Elizabeth Brazeau.”
Justice Robert Armstrong accepted a prosecution and defence joint proposal for a six-year, six-month sentence.
With credit for time served in pre-trial custody, Edwards now has four years and six months left to serve.
