In 1944, Jennie Conroy was a 24-year-old war worker living in North Vancouver. She was murdered and left near the West Vancouver cemetery.
In 2015, I was almost finished Cold Case Vancouver when research archivist Daien Ide sent me an email from the NVMA. Daien had just acquired an album with photos that went up to the early 1940s. The owner’s name Miss. J. Conroy and address were inscribed in the inside front cover. Daien did some digging and thought that I would be interested in what she found out.
I was.
This podcast is from a chapter in Cold Case Vancouver: The City’s Most Baffling Unsolved Murders and includes interviews with Jennie’s daughter Mary and her niece Debbie.
Worked at the Shipyards:
Daien found out that Jennie Conroy was a 24-year-old shipyards war worker who was born and raised in North Vancouver. She was brutally murdered in 1944, her body left near the West Vancouver cemetery.
I wrote up a post on my blog and the next day I received an email from Jennie Conroy’s niece, Debbie.
Debbie told me that Jennie had given birth to a daughter just a couple of months before her murder and kindly put me in touch with her. Jennie was unmarried and Mary was adopted by a Chilliwack family. She married, raised five boys and now lives in New Zealand.
Jennie’s Family:
The story in Cold Case Vancouver, became a collaborative effort between Mary, Debbie and myself. You’ll hear from these incredible women, and how several decades later, Jennie’s unsolved murder continues to impact their lives.
Mary spent years researching her biological mother. And together, we built a profile of Jennie – what she looked like, what her family background was like, and the amazing person that she was.
And then bizarrely, when I was researching my book Blood, Sweat, and Fear, I came across several boxes that had been packed away by Inspector Vance, a forensic scientist with the Vancouver Police Department who retired in 1949. One of the boxes had an envelope marked Jennie Eldon Conroy. Inside were dozens of newspaper clippings, crime scene photos, an autopsy report, even samples of Jennie’s hair and gravel from the murder site that spilled out on my desk.
Inspector Vance solved a lot of cases over his 42-year- career, unfortunately Jennie’s wasn’t one of them.
Sponsors: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours and Erin Hakin Jewellery
Show notes:
If you have any information about these murders please call North Vancouver RCMP at 604-985-3311. If you wish to remain anonymous, call crime stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or visit the website solvecrime.ca
Music: You by thedarkpiano.com
Intro: Mark Dunn
Voice overs: Mark Dunn, Megan Dunn
Promo: Blood, Sweat, and Fear: the story of Inspector Vance
With immense gratitude to Jennie’s daughter Mary and her niece Debbie.
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