Melanie Cabay was a nineteen-year-old student described by those who knew her as gentle, kind, and full of promise. Standing at just five feet tall and weighing barely a hundred pounds, she was a petite young woman with a bright future ahead. A recent graduate of Sophie-Barat High School, Melanie was known for her casual confidence and mischievous spirit.
In the early hours of June 22nd, 1994, Melanie was spending time with friends at an apartment on rue Basile-Routhier in Montreal, Canada. Around one forty-five a.m., she left the gathering to return to her mother’s home on rue Bélanger.
The evening was chilly for June, and Melanie borrowed a sweater from a former boyfriend before setting out to catch a late-night bus at the corner of rue Fleury and rue Berri. Typically, she relied on public transit for this route, but on this fateful night, she never made it to the bus stop.
Melanie was last seen walking southwest along rue Basile-Routhier toward the intersection of rue Fleury and rue Berri, a short distance from Parc Ahuntsic. The area, a quiet residential neighborhood, was not considered particularly dangerous, but it was not without its unsettling undercurrents.
When Melanie failed to return home, her family and friends immediately mobilized. Posters featuring her high school graduation photo appeared across Ahuntsic, plastered on lampposts and utility poles. Sadly, all these efforts would be for naught.
On July 5th, a passerby made a grim discovery in a wooded area near Autoroute 640 and Montée Dumais in Mascouche, a suburb north of Montreal. Melanie’s body was found, naked except for her socks, partially covered with asphalt shingles and construction debris. She had been brutally attacked—strangled and struck on the head, her body discarded in a remote location. The scene suggested a deliberate attempt to conceal the crime, possibly by someone familiar with the area.
The cause of death was determined to be strangulation, with evidence of blunt force trauma to the head. The nature of the attack pointed to a violent and personal assault, and the absence of clothing suggested a possible sexual motive, though specific details about sexual assault were not publicly confirmed by authorities.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ), Quebec’s provincial police force, took the lead in investigating Melanie’s murder, with support from the Montreal Police Service (SPVM). Despite the urgency of the case, the investigation faced significant challenges from the outset. The 1990s were a different era for forensic science; DNA technology was in its infancy, and inter-agency communication was often hampered by jurisdictional silos. These limitations hindered the ability to connect Melanie’s case to other similar crimes in the region.
Investigators explored several leads, including the possibility that Melanie’s murder was linked to other unsolved cases involving young women in Quebec. The period was marked by a troubling pattern of violence against women, with names like Chantal Brochu, Marie-Chantale Desjardins, and Tara Manning appearing alongside Melanie’s in discussions of unsolved murders.
One potential suspect who emerged in later discussions was Claude Larouche, a convicted sexual offender and carpenter who was on probation in the summer of 1994. Larouche had been released from prison in May 1994 after serving a one-year sentence for sexually assaulting a nineteen-year-old woman. His criminal history and proximity to the Montreal area at the time of Melanie’s murder raised suspicions, particularly given the discovery of her body beneath construction materials—a detail that aligned with Larouche’s profession. Some speculated that he might have used a familiar dumping site in Mascouche to dispose of Melanie’s body. However, no definitive evidence has ever linked Larouche to the crime, and he was never charged in connection with Melanie’s murder.
Another avenue of investigation involved Luc Gregoire, a known offender active in Montreal as early as 1977. His name surfaced in discussions of unsolved murders in the city, but like Larouche, no concrete evidence tied him to Melanie’s case.
As of June 2025, Melanie Cabay’s murder remains an open wound for her family, friends, and the Ahuntsic community. The Sûreté du Québec continues to list her case on its cold case website. Despite the passage of over three decades, the hope persists that new evidence, perhaps through advancements in DNA technology or a witness coming forward, could finally bring justice.
Crime Immemorial 