Roger Smith

Roger Smith was a caring man who had built up a top-calibre herd of Jersey cows on his dairy farm just outside St. Thomas, Ontario. At 40 years old, he lived and worked on the farm with his common-law partner, Wendy Haveron. Friends and family knew Roger as a dedicated farmer. Wendy, a 45-year-old female, was described by her son as frail and unable to defend herself. Together, they shared a life on the rural property on Wellington Road.

In the cold, early hours of February 2, 1999, the Southwold Fire Department and Elgin County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were dispatched to a house fire at the couple's residence. After extinguishing the blaze that had consumed the farmhouse, emergency crews made a devastating discovery inside the charred ruins. They found the bodies of Roger and Wendy. The initial scene suggested a tragic fire, but investigators soon uncovered a more sinister reality. An autopsy revealed that both Roger Smith and Wendy Haveron had died from blunt force trauma before the fire started. Police determined the blaze was deliberately set, an attempt to destroy evidence and conceal the double murder.

The Elgin County OPP Crime Unit, under the direction of the OPP’s Criminal Investigation Branch, immediately launched a homicide investigation. In the days following the murders, relatives of the couple held a news conference, pleading with the public for any information that might lead to the killer. However, the initial investigation yielded few leads, and the case grew cold over the years. Despite the passage of time, the OPP has been adamant that the file is not a "cold case" but a "historical homicide" that remains active. Investigators have periodically renewed their calls for information, particularly around the anniversary of the crime, hoping that allegiances may have changed or that someone's conscience might compel them to come forward.

Over the decades, the family has been left with unanswered questions and enduring grief. In a video released by the OPP on the 20th anniversary of the murders, Wendy’s sister, Wanda Smith, shared the family's pain. "We never thought it would last this long. We thought it was going to be solved fairly quick," she said while looking through a scrapbook of news clippings about the case. "Probably about six months after it happened, I was going through my scrapbooks and I was reading the stories, and then all of a sudden it hit me. This is our story. This is us. This isn’t reading about someone else’s murder. This is ours. This impacted us as a family... to know that someone is paying, that would mean a lot to all of us."

Police believe someone in the community holds the key to solving the murders. "Both the Elgin County OPP and family members believe that somebody out there has some piece of information regarding the deaths of Roger and Wendy,” OPP Constable Brett Phair stated in 2024. Investigators have stressed that even a seemingly insignificant detail could have a major impact on the investigation and help bring closure to the family.

As of February 2026, the double homicide of Roger Smith and Wendy Haveron remains an active and unsolved investigation. The Ontario government continues to offer a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for their deaths. Police urge anyone with information, no matter how small it may seem, to contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.