Delia Adriano’s fiancé dropped her at her parent’s Oakville home on a Sunday night and drove away. Delia never made it inside. Her body was found Nov. 6, 1982, in the woods near Campbellville.
Circumstances
On Sunday, Sept. 26, 1982, 25-year-old Delia Adriano spent the day with her fiancé Danny Dutra watching a soccer game and hanging out at a barbecue before he dropped at her parents’ home in Oakville around 9:30 p.m. Before she could get into the house, she was abducted.
Six weeks later, on Nov. 6, 1982, Delia was found nude in a wooded lot just south of Milton by Del Parcham, a woodcutter. Her body was too decomposed to determine cause of death or whether she had been sexually assaulted.
Witnesses reported hearing a woman’s screens a few blocks from Delia’s home that night around 10:30 p.m. Others also reported seeing a woman who fit Delia’s description being forced into a car by a man. The man and woman argued inside the car for about five minutes before the man drove the car off with the car’s lights off.
Delia’s purse was found on the sidewalk in the area of the incident the next morning.
The Case: Facts & Speculation
- Police think Delia knew her assailant. Delia’s family also think it could be someone who knew their family because the family dog did not bark while she interacted with the man on the street. Also, witnesses said it seemed like a couple arguing and not strangers.
- The fact that she was found nude suggests sexual assault as a motive even though her body was too decomposed to provide definitive answers.
- A composite sketch was made of the suspect who was described as white, 5’7 to 5’9, medium build, with brown hair feathered back to the neck.
- The car was descried as a dark blue, 2-door subcompact 1970s Chevrolet Chevette (or something similar) with three stripes on the side. The car had Ontario plates and was seen parked in the driveway of a model home sales office nearby.
- Adriano was part of a very close-knit Portuguese community, so it is possible the killer was someone in that group. Even the priest made a comment about it at her funeral.
- Her fiancee is not a suspect in her murder.
Map of the Case
Possible Suspects
Larry Talbot (pseudonym)
In his book, “A Viable Suspect:The Story of Multiple Murders and How a Police Force’s Reach Proved Too Short for Canada’s Most Notorious Cold Case”, retired OPP officer Barry Ruhl believes a serial killer he calls Larry Talbot could be responsible for the death of Leah Sousa, as well as many other girls and women in southwestern Ontario.
In 1971, Talbot broke into Ruhl’s Sauble Beach cottage and attacked his fiancée. Luckily, Ruhl interrupted the assault and arrested Talbot at the scene.
Later, he attended a community policing meeting about Leah Sousa’s murder where he learned that the intruder gained entrance to the home by smashing out the back door window. This was also how Talbot broke into Ruhl’s cottage 21 years earlier.
A traveling salesman, Talbot frequented the highways of southwestern Ontario and a “rape kit” was found in his car, but he died before he was thoroughly investigated for any unsolved murders, including:
- Lynne Harper, 12, from Vanastra. Her 1959 murder saw Steven Truscott wrongly convicted.
- Lynda White, 19, went missing from London in 1968. Her remains were found in Norfolk County in 1973.
- Jacqueline English, 15, went missing from London in 1969. Her body was found near Tilsonburg.
- Pauline Ivy Dudley, 17, from Oakville, was killed in 1973. Halton Regional Police informed Ruhl that Talbot was the prime suspect in her case.
- Christine Prince, from Toronto, was killed in 1982. Her body was found floating in Toronto’s Rouge River.
- Leah Sousa, 13, from Cumberland Beach, was killed in 1992. Her body was found in her back yard.
- Valerie Stevens, 19, from Toronto, murdered in 1992. Her body was found in Burford.
- Cindy Hallaway, 17, last seen in Midland, was murdered in 1992. Her body was found near Phelpston.
Sketch of the man seen outside Adriano’s house the night she was abducted.
A car like the one witnesses said the suspect was seen driving the night Adriano was abducted.