At just 15 years old, Jackie English was known as a hero to her family in London, Ontario. A determined and hardworking teenager, she juggled two jobs to help support her loved ones, even buying her younger brother a new suit for his graduation. Tragically, three months later, he would wear that same suit to her funeral. Remembered for her sense of responsibility and care for her family, Jackie's life was cut short in a crime that has haunted the region for more than half a century.
On the night of Saturday, October 4, 1969, Jackie finished her shift as a waitress at the Metropolitan Store diner in the Treasure Island Plaza. Around 10:30 p.m., she began her usual walk home, heading toward the Wellington Road bridge over Highway 401 to catch a bus at Exeter Road. Witnesses later reported seeing Jackie stop on the bridge and accept a ride, getting into the back seat of a car. It was the last time she was seen alive.
Because Jackie was living with friends due to her family's financial difficulties, she wasn't immediately reported missing. Her concerned father contacted the police on the evening of October 5 after learning she had never made it home.
For five agonizing days, her family waited for news. The search ended in heartbreak on October 9, 1969. Two duck hunters discovered Jackie’s nude body floating in the waters of Big Otter Creek, about 70 kilometers from where she was last seen. An autopsy determined the cause of death was a single, brutal blow to the back of her head with a heavy object, such as a tire iron or a crowbar. A ring was still on her finger, but her other belongings were gone.
The investigation that followed revealed a scattered and disturbing trail of evidence. Days after her body was found, Jackie’s torn clothing was discovered along County Road 46 in Bayham Township, roughly 29 kilometers from where her body was dumped. Police recovered a semen sample from her underwear that did not match a sample taken from her body, which was attributed to her boyfriend whom she had been with earlier on the day she vanished. Later, on October 20, her brown penny loafer shoes were found on the bank of a pond in Malahide Township, a location eerily close to where another young woman, Georgia Jackson, had been found murdered in 1966.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigation has spanned decades, but no one has ever been charged. The case has been linked by many researchers and investigators to a series of unsolved slayings in the London area between 1959 and 1984, which led to the city being grimly nicknamed Canada's "serial killer capital." Many believe Jackie was a victim of a predator known as the "Forest City Killer," who is suspected in at least eight murders of young women and girls. Police developed a composite sketch based on the testimony of a family who saw two men speaking with a frightened-looking Jackie at the diner on the night she disappeared.
Over the years, Jackie’s family has never stopped seeking justice. Her sister, Anne English, has organized an annual memorial walk for over a decade, retracing Jackie’s final steps to keep her memory alive and appeal for new information. "Think about this woman who’s been mourning her sister for decades with no answers," said Vanessa Brown, author of a book on the case. "Reenacting her sister’s final steps every year to remember her is an absolutely heartbreaking image."
As of January 2025, the murder of Jackie English remains one of Ontario's most prominent and enduring cold cases. Despite the passage of time, investigators and podcasters believe modern technology could still provide a breakthrough. Semen samples were collected in 1969, and if the evidence has been properly preserved, forensic genealogy could potentially identify her killer. For now, a family continues to wait for answers, and a predator who stole the life of a 15-year-old girl remains free.
