Who killed Ting Fong Chan? Over 50 years later, Winnipeg police review case that led to wrongful convictions

More than five decades after a 40-year-old chef and father of two was killed near a downtown Winnipeg construction site, the three men wrongfully convicted in his murder have been exonerated — leaving a crucial question unanswered.

Who really killed Ting Fong Chan?

"To say the trail is cold … doesn't quite get to it," said James Lockyer, a lawyer and the director of Innocence Canada. That group helped exonerate Allan Woodhouse, Brian Anderson and Clarence Woodhouse in Chan's 1973 killing, and has filed a posthumous application for Russell Woodhouse's manslaughter conviction to also be reviewed.

The more time that has passed in a case like this, the colder that trail — and "I hate to say this, but probably the less enthusiasm to reopen the investigation," Lockyer said.

But does that make it impossible? Not quite.

In fact, the real killer has been identified in at least three other cases the organization has worked on — sometimes decades after the crime, like in the 1969 death of Saskatoon nurse Gail Miller, where DNA evidence helped exonerate David Milgaard nearly 30 years later.

DNA was also what helped identify the real culprit in the 1984 killing of nine-year-old Christine Jessop in Queensville, north of Toronto, decades after her next-door neighbour, Guy Paul Morin, was wrongfully convicted. DNA evidence also helped clear Greg Parsons, who was wrongfully convicted in the 1991 death of his mother, Catherine Carroll, in St. John's.

A Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson said in light of the recent exonerations in the Chan homicide, the service will conduct "a review of the initial investigation to determine next steps" in the case, which they described in an email as an "open investigation."

But in this case, one issue may be what evidence police still have.

Since the prosecution against the wrongfully convicted men relied on false confessions, Lockyer suspects there isn't anything — no murder weapon or other physical evidence — that could yield the DNA of whoever really killed Chan.

However, that doesn't mean they have nothing to work with. In reviewing parts of the case himself, Lockyer learned the police files identify other potential suspects who investigators at the time "discounted because they had decided who had done the crime," he said.

"Now, maybe they can sort of have a better look at the other suspects, and what evidence it was that led them to identify them as potential suspects back in 1973."

If a similar review of another Winnipeg wrongful conviction case is any indication, there could also be serious challenges ahead.

Andrew Mikolajewski is a retired Winnipeg detective who was tasked in 1999 with reviewing the investigation into the 1981 killing of 16-year-old Barbara Stoppel.