OPP forensic 3-D facial reconstruction model of the Nation River Lady. Ontario Provincial Police photo
‘Nation River Lady’ identified after 50 years, man charged
CASSELMAN — A local farmer discovered the wrapped and bound remains of a woman floating face down in the South Nation River, just outside Casselman, on May 3, 1975. The so-called ‘Nation River Lady,’ as she became known, went unidentified for nearly 50 years — until now.
A renewed police effort to crack the cold case has finally revealed the victim, as well as her alleged killer. According to information uncovered by Radio-Canada, the deceased was Jewell Parchman Langford, 48, who had recently relocated to Montreal from her native Tennessee, where she grew up as part of a large farm family. Charged in her murder is Rodney Nichols, now 81, a former Montreal resident and acquaintance of Langford now living in Hollywood, Florida, according to media reports. He’s the subject of an extradition request.
The OPP charged Nichols through the L’Orignal, Ontario, court last September, without going public, and the break in the case didn’t become known until last month when a publication ban was lifted.
Police got their big break when they uploaded the victim’s DNA profile to the online GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA genealogy databases in 2020. A volunteer community of investigative genealogists with ‘The ‘DNA Doe Project’ accessed the profile and compared it to others in the system, allowing them to establish family connections. Within a few weeks, they had targeted Langford as the likely candidate. “She was practically there waiting for us to find her,” said the Project’s team leader C. Lauritsen in a press release. “The heartbreaking part is that Jewell’s mother clearly searched for her for years and died not knowing what happened to her daughter.”
