Jeremy Grimaldi
Torstar
YORK REGION, Ont. — Before Bev Blundell died, she had one last message for her two boys: “Don't let the memory of your sister's death fade, keep up the search.”
The two boys took the message to heart.
They remain intent on finding out who was behind the wheel when their 10-year-old sister was struck and killed that fateful evening on Stouffville's Main Street.
“She was a person that needed answers,” said eldest son Bill Blundell, from his Uxbridge home. “Yearly, we'd sit down and have a few drinks; once we got on that topic, she'd want to know the status.”
Bill, then aged six, will never forget the night of the hit-and-run.
It was Feb. 6, 1973, when his brother Bruce, then three, and sister Sheryl, 10, were being cared for by their babysitter, Bonnie Boadway.
Bev had been working nights at Pond's in Markham since she split with the children's father, Russ, a few years prior.
It was just after 7 p.m. when Sheryl's good friend, Lynn Sprague, from down the street showed up at the Blundell's home, above the then Regal Restaurant at Albert and Main streets, wanting to head to a local shop for some candy.
About a block away, at some point between 7:15 and 7:23 p.m. a lost female motorist with a goat (there have been reports of a box full of kittens in the past) in her car stopped and began asking the girls for directions to the veterinarian, in hopes she'd make it there in time to save the animal's life.
Unable to hear the girls, she asked them to come to the driver's side window.
It was only when they obliged, that the fatal strike occurred.
Standing in the road, darkness surrounding them, a vehicle came streaming out from behind them travelling west on Main Street, just east of 9th Line, and hit both girls, throwing Sheryl some 30 feet in the air, according to reports.
“I was goofing around upstairs,” said Bill, recalling the fateful day. “I was always fascinated by ambulance, fire and police, so when I heard the sirens I ran to the window to watch the lights.”
Sheryl took the brunt of the crash and, although some witnesses said the vehicle did slow down, it eventually took off, speeding down the street.
When Bev arrived home she found the grim scene punctuated with Bonnie the babysitter having to be restrained by firefighters due to her overwhelming grief. Sheryl was taken to Scarborough Centenary Hospital before being deemed brain dead and taken off life support.
Lynn was clipped in the hip and suffered bumps and bruises but was never treated. She went home not knowing the rest of her life would be contaminated by this event, forced to carry its weight until her untimely death a few months ago.
“She used to tell me, I've never been right since the accident,” Bill said, explaining how Lynn called him every six months asking about the case. “I think she suffered with feelings of guilt, why she was spared and Sheryl taken ... I heard her say that more than once.”
Sgt. Mark Walton, formerly of major collisions, is the latest investigator and perhaps the most dogged of those to have set their sights on solving the case.
"I had a lot of determination at the beginning, I felt terrible this happened ... I owed it to them," Walton said. "I wanted to find the person who did this and bring closure."
He said from the outset, the evidence led investigators down more than one errant path.
There were originally three descriptions of the vehicle; one witness called the vehicle an older model red Chevrolet, another said it was a 1962 Ford-style vehicle, yet another referred to it as having white, oval-shaped tail lights and a dark fender.
Soon after the crash, Sheryl's tuque was discovered in a nearby subdivision by police near a smashed rear tail-light housing from a Mustang.
Investigators began seeking red Mustangs, only for the damaged car to be found and ruled out.
Police didn't stop there.
Tests sent off for examination would eventually return finding the girls' clothes had fragments of red paint and grey primer on them, prompting police to widen the search to all red cars.
“In the '70s, (police) were running all over scraping red paint from cars ... but nothing matched,” he added.
The case went cold, only to be revived in 1978 when reports that an inebriated man at a Christmas party suggested that he'd hit and killed a child.
“He was bragging about street racing and Sheryl's uncle called him out,” said Walton. “When he asked if he was scared that he'd kill a child, the man responded ‘don't go there, I know what that's all about, I’ve been there before.’ When the uncle brought up (Sheryl's) name, the man left the house.”
That individual, named Greg Ferguson, was found to have had access to a red Ford Galaxy 500 from the '60s owned by the man he lived with, said Walton.
However, Ferguson refused to admit he was referring to Sheryl at the party, claiming it was a child on a bicycle that he'd clipped.
Without any further evidence (rumours later suggested the car had been repainted after the incident and then destroyed), police released him unconditionally.
“Christmas was awful, just terrible, no happiness in any days. She would have little meltdowns, she held a lot in and then there'd be an eruption — plates, pots, pans and records would go flying and crashing around the house.”
The case once again went cold until a 1988 Crime Stoppers re-enactment aired on television, resulting in five tips via Crime Stoppers, describing a number of men who liked to drink and owned different sorts of vehicles.
In one case, the caller mentioned a red vehicle that had been abandoned in the middle of a farmer's field.
This vehicle was eventually discovered by Walton in Sunderland, before being ruled out.
Walton even tried to give Ferguson a polygraph, but police in P.E.I., where he was living at the time, said he was in such bad shape physiologically, because of years of alcohol abuse, the results of a lie detector would not be reliable.
Two other persons of interest, both connected to the red Ford Galaxy 500, were interviewed by Walton.
“They denied involvement ... they said they wouldn't be surprised given the temperament of (Ferguson),” Walton added. “(The owner) said he repainted (the car) a number of times because it was old and he had access to a shop.”
Ferguson died two years ago.
Doing it for Sheryl
Despite the heart-wrenching soap opera which is this investigation, Bill and Bruce continue to share their sister’s story.
The pair spoke to yorkregion.com exclusively in the lead up to a York Regional Police press release that hopes to spur further interest in the case.
They're doing it for Sheryl, who they describe as the motherly sort who loved taking care of her baby brothers and baking cakes in her Betty Crocker Easy Bake oven.
They're doing it for their mother, Bev, who they remember becoming a “volcano” of emotion, trying to raise two boys, working and dealing with the anger, frustration and sadness of losing her only daughter.
“Christmas was awful, just terrible, no happiness in any days,” Bill recalled. “She would have little meltdowns, she held a lot in and then there'd be an eruption — plates, pots, pans and records would go flying and crashing around the house.”
Bruce recalls how Bev's “ongoing fear” punctuated much of the family's life from his sister's passing onward.
They're doing it for their father, who spent his life wracked with regret over the incident until he eventually died.
“He could never separate himself from the guilt,” Bill added. “He never got to enjoy life like he should have.”
The brothers believe a potential resolution to the unsolved case is still out there.
Bill was contacted a year ago by a man on Facebook saying he knows who is responsible and is looking to speak with police.
Until then, they said they have little choice but to just “keep searching.”
Jeremy Grimaldi is the crime and justice reporter for yorkregion.com and its sister papers. This article is reprinted with permission.
