August 2, 2021 will mark a grim anniversary.
It’s the 45th anniversary of the death of Marie Judy Goudreau. As such, Leduc RCMP are taking another look at the case, and asking for the public’s help in finally finding her killer.
Just after midnight on August 3, 1976, RCMP received a report of an abandoned vehicle on Range Road 244, about 3 miles south of Township Road 510 – now known as Ellerslie Road. The abandoned vehicle was described as a blue Plymouth Cricket and was reported to have been there since around 11 p.m. on August 2.
Leduc RCMP attended the scene and found the car stopped in the southbound lane of the roadway. The car’s engine was still running, headlights on, and the driver’s door ajar. The driver’s side window was rolled about three-quarters of the way down. The car was registered to Marie’s father.
RCMP searched the vehicle and found a brown leather purse with money inside, a pair of sandals, and a mahogany-coloured leather coat folded neatly on the back seat. All were determined to belong to Marie. The officers didn’t see any evidence of a criminal act, but learned that Marie hadn’t returned home.
RCMP conducted an air and ground search. The ground search called in police dogs and searchers on horseback for help, but turned up nothing, and there were no signs that Marie had entered into the surrounding fields. RCMP believed that Marie was stopped along the road and lured out of her car by either someone she knew or someone under the guise of requesting aide.
RCMP carried out an extensive investigation in an attempt to locate Marie and were able to piece together most of her final evening.
At around 9:15 p.m. on August 2, Marie dropped off a friend at the Edmonton Industrial Airport and then went to visit two other friends in their apartment in Edmonton. Marie told her friends that she was tired and had to work the following morning, and left her friend’s apartment at around 10:30 p.m. to head home to the family farm.
At the time, Marie was working at the Woodward Café at the Southgate Shopping Centre in Edmonton, and had been accepted to start college that fall.
On August 4, between 7 and 8 p.m. Marie’s body was found on a rural property around 1.7 miles north of Devon, near Highway 60 in a water-filled ditch. The area was searched extensively and police dogs helped out in the search. Before the search, police determined that Marie’s brown slacks and navy blue ankle socks were missing. Those items have never been recovered.
RCMP worked though more than 600 leads. In the winter of 1977, more investigators were assigned to the case in the hopes that fresh eyes would yield new avenues of investigation. Again, pleas were made to the public for information that might lead to a break in the case.
In 2005, homicide investigators reviewed Marie Goudreau’s case as part of an examination of the deaths of women from the Edmonton area whose bodies had been located in the surrounding rural communities. Interviews were conducted with persons of interest, and some items were resubmitted to the RCMP forensics lab for examination. However, they did not find any new information that could advance the investigation.
Now, on the 45th anniversary, the Alberta Historical Homicide Unit is reviewing the case once again, and will pursue any avenues of investigation that may be identified.
Leduc RCMP are asking the public’s assistance for any information in relation to this incident, the missing clothing or identifying those responsible. If you have information, contact the Leduc RCMP at 780-980-7200 or your local police agency.
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