I was wondering if you remember the story of my dear friend Linda Blanchett. She was found dead on Thanksgiving weekend in 1966. She used to work at Woolworths at Fairview and left work at 9 or 10 pm and never made it home. Her car was found at the intersection of Sources Rd and 2-20 Hwy. That was a level crossing in those days. Her body was found by hunters out in the fringes of Dorion, near the TransCanada Hwy which was under construction, on the same weekend as the Dorion school bus crash. The morgue was so full they couldn't process her body until after the weekend. She had been out there for weeks. It was a very huge tragedy in my life. The Grade 11 classes were to graduate in October after the Provincial exams told us if we got our matriculation. On the night of our grad, a few days after they found her, there was a cap and gown for her laid out on her desk in our class room. Then the funeral was held a few days later. It was so hard on us. The scandal sheet paper-Le Minuit was there taking photos of the mourners. That was upsetting. Some of her friends chipped in and had an oil painting done from her grad picture and gave it to the family. Her younger brother David later died. I think it was a heart defect that they didn't know he had. I would like to see her bio added to your memorials page.

Brenda Freeman-Campbell (1966) - Friend

I didn't know Linda Blanchett personally but I often saw her in the halls of Riverdale. When I heard she was missing, I was shocked and upset. One evening after Thanksgiving, my mother told me that hunters had found her body in a field. It had been a very wet fall that year and all I could think of was Linda laying alone in the field with the rain falling on her, so far from her loving family.

After all these years, I still remember Linda, especially when I see a picture of yet another victim. So many of them look like Linda, young and beautiful with long brown hair. I hope her murder was solved.
Gayle Bested, Schoolmate (1966).