On Friday, January 19th, 1996, seventeen-year-old student Samuel Lottery was walking to his home in White Oaks, London, Ontario, Canada. Sadly, he would never make it there.
His heartbroken family had no idea what had happened to him, but they were shocked and horrified by a letter they received in February of 1996, more than a month after Samuel had gone missing. The letter seemed to be from the person responsible for Samuel’s disappearance and told the Lottery family that they should look in the Thames River for his remains. Police took the letter seriously, but found nothing at the time.
Months later, in November of the same year, another letter, this one handwritten, arrived at the Lottery family home. It described the circumstances of Samuel’s murder and gave more specific instructions about where to locate the body. The letter was written on distinctive stationery which investigators hoped someone in the public would recognize.
Again, no trace of Samuel was found. But in May of 1997, more than a year after the teenager’s disappearance, a dog walker found some human bones near Blackfriars Bridge along the Thames River. It’s unclear if these bones were identified as belonging to Samuel Lottery at the time of their discovery, but six years later, in November of 2003, a human jawbone was found in the same area. A skull was recovered five years after that, in April of 2008, though it was located farther away, near Guy Lombardo Bridge.
Finally, after the discovery of the skull and the positive identification of the victim via DNA, authorities began a homicide investigation. Though detectives are certain that Samuel most likely knew his killer or killers, it would seem that other leads in the case are thin on the ground. The London Police Service is still asking for information to help them in solving the decades-old murder and bringing some closure to the Lottery family once and for all.
Crime Immemorial 