A man charged with murdering a woman who was found dead in eastern Ontario decades ago told police investigating the cold case that he dumped her body in a river, U.S. court documents show.
The details of Rodney Mervyn Nichols’ conversation with Ontario Provincial Police at a Florida retirement home are contained in court documents filed this week as Nichols was arrested Tuesday.
OPP have charged Nichols, of Hollywood, Fla., with murder in the death of Jewell ‘Lalla’ Langford, referred to as Lalla Jewel Langford in the U.S. legal documents.
Police have said Langford, a 48-year-old who was from Tennessee, had travelled to Montreal in April 1975 and never returned home.
Her body was found in the Nation River in eastern Ontario but remained unidentified for decades – with the case being referred to as that of the “Nation River Lady” – until forensic genealogy identified her in 2020.
U.S. court documents show OPP officers travelled to Florida last year and interviewed Nichols at a Florida retirement home in February 2022. He initially denied any involvement in Langford’s disappearance but later provided several pieces of information.
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He first said he and Langford – who police have said knew each other – had gone out on a sailboat that capsized and she drowned as a result, the documents say. He then said he tried to drown Langford in a river because he was depressed, they say.
When shown photographs of neckties and other items that had been bound around Langford’s body, Nichols said the neckties belonged to him and two dish towels, another towel and a blanket were from his home, the documents say.
“Canadian authorities then advised Nichols that he had admitted to the murder of Langford and that he could be charged,” the court documents read.
“Following a telephone consultation with a legal aid lawyer in Canada, Nichols then stated that he had an altercation with Langford that started in his home in Montreal, and that he subsequently dumped her body in the Nation River.”
When asked by investigators why he confessed, he said that “he had to come clean,” the documents say.
“He stated that he felt terrible for what he had done,” they say.
Nichols recently developed cognitive and memory issues, as reported by his power of attorney, the documents say. OPP investigators who interviewed Nichols were aware of this and conducted an assessment of his mental condition before finding him to be fit for questioning, the documents say.
Investigators collected a voluntary DNA sample of Nichols during his interview with the OPP and compared it with blood on a green cloth that was wrapped around Langford’s neck, the documents state.
The analysis found that the DNA found on the cloth was “190 times more likely” to be Nichols than any other person, they say.
OPP have charged Nichols with murder for Langford’s death and are seeking his extradition from the United States.
Nichols was arrested on Tuesday and appeared in court where an extradition hearing was set for Sept. 26, the legal documents show. U.S. authorities asked that he be held without bond.
The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the case. Lawyers for the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Nichols did not respond to a request for comment.
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