Adele Komorowski

Adele Komorowski was a gifted and popular 26-year-old graduate student at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, just two weeks shy of her 27th birthday. Born in Germany in 1947 to parents who had survived a forced labor camp, Adele immigrated to Canada with her family in 1951. Growing up near Mississauga, she became fluent in English, Russian, German, and Polish. Friends and family remembered the tall, dark-haired woman as both outgoing and reserved, confident yet soft-spoken. She was nearing the completion of her Master's thesis in German Languages and Literature and was engaged to be married to a German naval lieutenant she had met while studying abroad on a scholarship.

On the night of Tuesday, May 15, 1973, Adele was working late on her thesis in her office on the fifth floor of the Arts II building on campus. Around 11 p.m., she packed her purse and umbrella, leaving an unfinished passage on the page, and walked out into the darkness. As she passed Brandon Hall, a campus residence, she was accosted by a man. Witnesses heard a woman scream "leave me alone" as she was dragged into a wooded ravine behind the building. The commotion alerted other residents, who quickly began a search of the area. A short time later, Adele's lifeless body was found near a path in the woods. She had been strangled, and her body was bound with expertly tied knots.

The Hamilton Police Service launched an immediate and intensive investigation. Detectives initially focused on several individuals, including a professor and a former boyfriend, but no charges were ever laid. The physical evidence found at the scene was perplexing. The rope used to bind Adele contained traces of horse and cow hair, leading investigators to consider people with backgrounds in sailing or farming. A bra was also found near her body, but her friends confirmed it was not hers; it was too large and of a style worn by a much older woman. This detail baffled police for decades, suggesting the killer may have left it behind, possibly as a trophy from a previous victim.

Years later, the cold case gained a compelling, if circumstantial, new lead. Researchers and retired detectives pointed to Robert Garrow, a notorious serial killer from New York State who was active during that time. Garrow had a farming background and was known for binding his victims with intricate knots. Two months after Adele's murder, he began a killing spree in the Adirondacks. After his eventual capture, a map was found in his car marked with 27 red dots, believed to be crime locations, including one in Hamilton. The original detectives on the Komorowski case, Clive Paul and Jim Willis, later stated that Garrow was the best suspect they had ever had. Paul noted that the bra found at the scene could fit the profile of a serial killer who takes trophies. However, Hamilton police have remained cautious, pointing out that unlike Garrow's other known crimes, Adele was not raped.

The murder left Adele's family shattered. Her brother, Peter, was just 17 when police knocked on his door at 4 a.m. to deliver the news. The trauma of her death haunted the family for the rest of their lives. Her mother drank herself to death, and her father passed away without ever knowing who killed his daughter. Peter Komorowski rarely spoke of his sister, the pain kept locked away. "A case like this never leaves you," retired investigator Clive Paul said years later. "It fades, yes, but it’s always there. You always ask yourself, ‘What did I do wrong?... What did I overlook?"

As of October 2019, the murder of Adele Komorowski remains an open and unsolved homicide investigation with the Hamilton Police Service. Robert Garrow was killed during a prison escape attempt in 1978 and never admitted to the crime. While modern DNA testing has been performed on some evidence from the case, no definitive match has been made, and no one has ever been charged. The case stands as a dark echo on the McMaster campus and a source of enduring pain for those who knew and loved the bright young woman whose story ended so violently in the woods that night.

Hamilton Police continue to welcome any information that might help solve this homicide. Anyone with information is encouraged to call Detective Dave Oleniuk at 905-546-3874 or Crime Stoppers.