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2d ago

Montreal Police Use Genetic Genealogy to Identify Jacques Bolduc as Killer in 2008 Daviau Case

Police verified a 2024 family lead from genealogical databases using relatives after the suspect’s death.

Montreal police Cmdr. Francois Sauve, left to right, Montreal police Cmdr. Melanie Dupont and Suzanne Marchand, senior executive director of the provincial crime lab, announce the resolution in the 2008 murder of Catherine Daviau during a news conference in Montreal, on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.

Overview

  • Montreal police named Jacques Bolduc as responsible for the 2008 killing of 26-year-old Catherine Daviau in her Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie apartment.
  • Investigators said genetic genealogy produced a lead in fall 2024, which they confirmed by comparing crime-scene DNA with samples from Bolduc’s family.
  • Bolduc died of natural causes in 2021 at the Archambault Institution, and his remains were unavailable for testing, necessitating the familial comparison.
  • Police said Bolduc attempted to burn the apartment to eliminate evidence, but preserved traces of DNA enabled the later identification.
  • Officials noted a court-ordered DNA swab from Bolduc’s 2020 conviction was never entered in the national DNA bank, and the expanded cold-case unit is applying similar methods to hundreds of unsolved files.