Canadian authorities have identified a person known as “The Woman in the Well” nearly two decades after her remains were found.
The woman, Alice Spence, was born in September 1881 and had moved to Canada from Minnesota in 1913, police said.
In June 2006, crews excavating a site in Sutherland, Saskatoon, found an old well and a barrel containing preserved human remains, according to a news release from the Saskatoon Police Service. The area was previously the site of the Shore Hotel, a boarding house that was demolished in 1927, according to a news release from the private genetic genealogy company Othram.
The woman had been partially dismembered, police believed, and was wrapped in a burlap sack and stuffed in the barrel, Othram said. Police found clothes, including a fitted jacket and long skirt, that dated to between 1910 and 1920, Othram said. A broken necklace and men’s clothing were also found.
An autopsy determined the woman had died under suspicious circumstances, but authorities were unable to identify her despite years of investigation. Police developed a DNA profile, but found no matches, and facial reconstruction images released to the public turned up no answers, Othram said.
In 2023, the Saskatoon Police Services submitted forensic evidence from the case to Othram. Othram’s scientists were able to develop a DNA extract from the skeletal evidence. They built a comprehensive DNA profile, Othram said, which was used to generate “new investigative leads” that were returned to the police service.
A breakthrough came in June this year, Saskatoon Police Service Sergeant Darren Funk said in a news conference. At an event in Ottawa, Funk heard the Toronto Police Service describe how they had used investigative genetic genealogy to solve a homicide. Investigative genetic genealogy uses the DNA of people who were related to the subject to help make an identification.
Funk connected with the Toronto Police Service and asked them to review the case of “The Woman in the Well.” The Toronto Police Service’s follow-up investigation led investigators to people who may have been the woman’s relatives. Police collected reference DNA samples from those subjects, and those samples were compared to the woman’s DNA profile. Authorities also used historical information and city archives to help make the identification.
Alice Spence was married to a man named Charles Spence and had a daughter, Idella, police said. Spence’s listing in a 1916 census was the last proof of life historians could find for her.
The family’s home in Sutherland was destroyed by a fire in 1918, police said. Other records show Charles and Idella Spence living with a housekeeper in 1921. Investigators believe that Alice’s death occurred sometime between 1916 and the fire in 1918.
Spence’s descendants, located through forensic genetic genealogy, were largely unaware of their relative and her death, police said.
The police service said it believes this is the oldest investigation in Canada to be solved with the assistance of investigative genetic genealogy. Saskatoon Police Service Chief Cameron McBride called it a “testament to the determination and innovation of investigators throughout all these years.”
