Three Bodies, One Property, No Link: The Smiths Falls Investigation
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
The Ontario Provincial Police have recovered the remains of three missing men from a single rural lot, yet investigators have not explicitly linked the deaths.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are facing mounting questions after the remains of three men were discovered on a single 16-hectare rural property off Kelly Jordan Road in Montague, near Smiths Falls.
According to CBC News, the remains of Lawrence Bertrim were announced earlier this month. His discovery follows the recovery of Robert Lambert two weeks prior, and Robbie Thomson nine months before that. While the bodies were found at the same site, CBC News reports that police are not explicitly linking the deaths.
Justice remains uneven across the three cases. Three individuals have been charged in the death of Robbie Thomson, with a fourth charged as an accessory. However, no charges have been filed in the suspicious deaths of Bertrim or Lambert, though the OPP is offering $50,000 rewards for useful information.
Property records obtained by CBC News reveal that Robert Lambert, who disappeared in the summer of 2018 at age 75, originally purchased the Kelly Jordan Road property in 2004. In April 2018, Christopher Fenton—one of the individuals now accused of murdering Lambert—became a co-owner of the property shortly before Lambert vanished.
Sgt. Erin Cranton of the OPP stated that investigators are working to determine the linkages and causes of death. Mayor Shawn Pankow told CBC News that while the community is awaiting answers, he expects charges to eventually be brought in the remaining two cases.