OPP seek public’s help in homicide cold case involving Sarnia girl

POINT EDWARD, Ont. – Provincial police hope a new appeal to the public will help reinvigorate an investigation into a four-decade-old homicide.

Karen Caughlin, 14, of Sarnia was dropped off early on March 16, 1974, in front of a friend’s house on Brock St. South in the city.

Investigators say Caughlin never entered the home and a farmer discovered her battered body later that morning in a shallow ditch by a gravel sideroad northwest of Petrolia.

Police have said the autopsy revealed that Caughlin’s injuries were consistent with having been struck by a vehicle. However, circumstances such as her purse being located several days later in a ditch north of Petrolia, led investigators to rule her death a homicide.

Even a $50,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of her killer hasn’t led police to an arrest in the case.

OPP say they plan to release a case chronology video today and launch a public appeal to anyone with information in the case.