They Sent a 14-Year-Old to DEATH ROW for a Murder He Didn't Commit. (48 years later...)

On June 9, 1959, 12-year-old Lynne Harper was sexually assaulted and strangled to death near RCAF Station Clinton in Ontario, Canada. Two days later, her body was found in Lawson's Bush. Within 36 hours of that discovery, 14-year-old Steven Truscott was charged with her murder. He was convicted, sentenced to death by hanging, and came within months of becoming the youngest person ever executed in Canadian history. There's just one problem: he almost certainly didn't do it.

Steven Truscott's story is one of the most infamous wrongful convictions in Canadian history—a case that helped abolish capital punishment in Canada and exposed catastrophic failures in the justice system. But the question that haunts this case nearly 65 years later is this: if Steven didn't kill Lynne Harper, then who did?

On the evening of June 9, 1959, Steven gave Lynne a ride on his bicycle to Highway 8, where he says he watched her hitchhike and climb into a car. That was his story from the beginning, and he never wavered from it. But police didn't believe him. Inspector Harold Graham was convinced Steven had taken Lynne into Lawson's Bush and killed her there.

The evidence against Steven was entirely circumstantial. The timeline was incredibly tight—he would have needed to rape and murder Lynne, arrange her clothing, place branches over her body, and bike back to school within 35-60 minutes. When he returned, numerous witnesses said he looked completely normal—no scratches, no blood, not even out of breath. The bicycle tracks at the scene couldn't be definitively matched to his bike. The "footprint" near the body was never properly measured or photographed.

But the Crown had their secret weapon: Dr. John Penistan, who testified he could pinpoint Lynne's time of death based on her stomach contents. He claimed she died between 7:15-7:45 PM—when Steven was with her. This testimony was devastating. It was also likely wrong.

The Crown's key witnesses—13-year-old Joelyn Godette and 14-year-old "Butch" George—had credibility issues and told constantly changing stories. But the defense witnesses—Doug Oates and Gordon Logan, who saw Steven and Lynne cross the bridge together before Steven returned alone—never wavered from their accounts.

Steven was convicted on September 30, 1959 and sentenced to death. He was 14 years old. His execution was scheduled for December 8, 1959—just over two months away. Public outcry led to his sentence being commuted to life imprisonment. He served 10 years before being paroled in 1969, then lived under an assumed name for decades.

But in 2000, Steven decided to fight to clear his name. When his case was finally reviewed by the Court of Appeal for Ontario in 2006-2007, shocking evidence emerged that had been withheld from his defense in 1959:

Dr. Penistan had written to police BEFORE the 1966 Supreme Court hearing expressing doubts about his testimony—admitting he'd made an "agonizing reappraisal" and that Lynne could have died much later than he'd testified. This letter was never turned over to the defense.

Entomology experts testified that based on the insects found on Lynne's body, she likely died AFTER the time Steven had an alibi—possibly the morning of June 10th, not the evening of June 9th.



On August 28, 2007—48 years after his conviction—Steven Truscott was acquitted of all charges. The court ruled his conviction was a "miscarriage of justice." However, they could not declare him factually innocent due to the passage of time.

This documentary examines the evidence against Steven and why it falls apart under scrutiny. We explore the alternate suspects who were never properly investigated. We look at the junk science of stomach content analysis that was accepted in 1959. We examine how a 14-year-old boy was nearly executed based on questionable eyewitness testimony and a pathologist who later doubted his own conclusions.

Most importantly, we ask: who really killed Lynne Harper? Was it Alexander Kalichuk, the sexual predator who checked into a psychiatric clinic weeks after the murder? Was it one of the other potential suspects who were never thoroughly investigated? The truth is, we may never know.

But we do know this: Steven Truscott spent 10 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He lived 40 more years under a cloud of suspicion. And Lynne Harper's real killer was never caught.

CASE DETAILS:
• Victim: Lynne Harper
• Date of Murder: June 9, 1959
• Location: Lawson's Bush, Clinton, Ontario, Canada
• Victim Age: 12
• Wrongfully Convicted: Steven Truscott (age 14)
• Conviction Overturned: August 28, 2007

If you have any information about Lynne Harper's murder, please contact:

Ontario Provincial Police: 1-888-310-1122

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