Warning: Some of the details in this story are disturbing
Rodney Nichols has been found not fit to stand trial for the murder of Jewell Parchman Langford, known for decades only as the “Nation River Lady.”
Superior Court Justice Brian Holowka said Nichols, 83, remains presumed innocent.
“He has neither been tried nor convicted of the serious offence in which he’s been charged,” Holowka said.
Nichols’s lawyer and the Crown had jointly recommended the judge find him unfit due to dementia.
Laura Metcalfe, Nichols’s lawyer, told the court that had this case gone to trial, there “were serious and significant triable issues” the defence would have raised, including the voluntariness of statements Nichols gave to police and alternative suspects.
Metcalfe told the court a woman called police to say she suspected her husband was involved in the case—saying he had a TV cord in his truck, she found a broken curtain rod in her bedroom and was missing a green towel and dish cloth.
Langford was strangled and was found with a curtain rod runner with a plastic wheel under her armpit and had a dish towel wrapped around her head.
“The number of items being the exact same as found on Ms. Langford…are at least so strongly connected to this offence that is it is quite likely, quite probable that this individual had something to do with it,” Metcalfe said.
Metcalfe said when Nichols spoke with investigators in 2022, his dementia was already documented.
In addition to having dementia, assistant Crown attorney Louise Tansey said fitness assessments by forensic psychologists also diagnosed Nichols with malingering—exaggerating or feigning symptoms.
Tansey acknowledged this was an “unusual case” and that “a just conclusion here is that Mr. Nichols be found unfit.”
The judge ordered Nichols to be transferred from the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre to the Royal Ottawa as soon as a bed is available.
Niece reads victim impact statement
Langford’s niece told court that her aunt was “always bright and cheerful and full of life.”
“My family was traumatized by not knowing what happened to her and wondering if she was alive for all these years,” said Denise Parchman Chung through tears, while delivering a victim impact statement in a L’Orignal, Ont., courtroom on Wednesday.
“She did not deserve to be killed and discarded like trash.”
Parchman Chung was 10 years old when Langford disappeared from Montreal in 1975. She described her aunt as a “very smart businesswoman who was heavily involved in her community and her family,” and as a “role model I admired.”
Langford’s body was found near Casselman, Ont., in May 1975, but she wasn’t identified until 2020 using forensic genealogy.
“My grandmother spent every dollar she could come up with trying to chase down leads and hire investigators to try and find her, even turning to psychics, a desperate need for the truth,” Parchman Chung said.
“She died not knowing what happened to her.”
Nichols was charged with murder in 2022 in connection with Langford’s death. Both the Crown and defence had asked the judge to find him not fit to stand trial.
