When Shirley Ann Duguay was brutally murdered in 1994, the crime was finally solved and her murderer was convicted – all thanks for her killer’s beloved white cat
When Shirley Ann Duguay got in her car, she was so small she had to first place a cushion on the driving seat. Standing at only 4ft 9, and weighing less than 100 pounds, the mother of five cut a diminutive figure.
On 3 October 1994, Shirley vanished, but initially, no one reported the 32 year old missing. Her father, Melvin, was at her home in Sunnyside on Prince Edward Island, Canada taking care of her children, who ranged from ages 15 to eight, and Shirley had reportedly taken herself off for days at a time previously.
Four days later, a local woman called the police, reporting an abandoned vehicle on her property. When the police got to the car, it was missing license plates – and covered with splattered blood.
The police traced the car using its serial number and found it to be Shirley’s, so when they went to her home and learned from Melvin that she had not been seen for days, their fears mounted. The blood spatter in the car had come from “medium impact”, indicating that someone inside the vehicle had been beaten badly, either with a fist or a blunt object.
Prince Edward Island, where Shirley had also grown up, is a small place with a close community, and a hunt to find the missing mother was immediately launched.
It was one of the largest the area had ever seen: 120 people began scouring the surrounding area for any clue where Shirley might be. But the weather on Prince Edward Island was quickly turning as winter approached, and the authorities were forced to call off the search for the missing mother.
However, a couple of clues had been found – a shovel with several long black hairs that testing revealed belonged to Shirley was found half a mile away; a bag containing a leather jacket and a pair of bloodied trainers 15 miles away, and beside the car, they found the pillow that Shirley sat on to drive, soaked through with blood.
The blood was determined to belong to Shirley after investigators used her father Melvin’s to get a match. But who did it?
For 15 years, Shirley had been in a long-term and tumultuous relationship with Doug Beamish, and her father Melvin told authorities that since their split, the couple had been on bad terms. Shirley had two children from a previous relationship and three with Beamish. It is reported that a few years earlier, Doug had been slapped with a “peace bond” – something that is issued in cases of domestic violence and stalking.
Doug was living with his parents at the time of Shirley’s disappearance. Melvin told the police that his daughter had often run away from her former partner to escape his violent tendencies.
The former partner of the missing woman totally denied having anything to do with her disappearance, but admitted he had size nine feet – the same as the trainers investigators had found – and agreed to let the police make a cast of his feet. They were a perfect match for whoever had worn the bloodied shoes discovered in the plastic bag, according to forensic podiatrists.
While they were interviewing Beamish at his parents’ home, they discovered they had a family pet – a white cat called Snowball. This would come to be a turning point in the case against him.
Attached to the inner material of the leather jacket found had been a handful of white hairs – and now knowing the main suspect had a white cat, the detectives saw a potential lead.
However, there was still no trace of where Shirley was, and it would not be until seven months later, in Spring 1995, when a fisherman stumbled across something suspicious that her family would finally know the missing woman’s fate.
The fisherman spotted a strange pile-up of bush on the riverbank that looked out of place. He approached it, and found something truly horrifying: the partially decomposed remains of a human being.
Shirley had been buried in a shallow grave by the river, her hands tied behind her back, and it was later discovered she had been beaten and suffocated.
The autopsy showed extreme and horrifying injuries had been inflicted on the petite woman, and blunt force trauma was the cause of death. Her nose was broken, as was her jaw in three places, and the beating she had endured was so extreme that a tooth was found embedded in her lungs.
Beamish was arrested and charged with the murder of his former partner – the mother of three of his children. Desperate to ensure his conviction, the investigators tried to match the white hairs found on the jacket – a picture of Beamish wearing it the day before the murder was later found – to the family cat Snowball.
However, genetic DNA testing of this kind had never been done before – but the detectives were determined. They even rounded up 20 other cats from the area to make sure they could be excluded.
Snowball’s was an exact match for the DNA on the hairs found, and other blood in Shirley’s vehicle was later found to be Beamish’s. A letter written by Doug to Shirley threatening her life was also found when the police searched his home, but the murderer maintained his innocence, even after he was found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison.
His trial would be the first time that animal DNA had been used in a court of law to convict someone of murder – but he tried and failed to appeal his conviction twice.
It took him over two decades in prison to take responsibility for what he had done. In recent parole hearings, he admitted that he “lost control” during a confrontation with Shirley about the custody arrangements for their shared children.
“I lost control,” he said, “I didn’t think of the consequences of what my actions were going to be,” adding that “I understand exactly why [his children] don’t want to have any contact with me”.
After his initial parole requests were denied, and started suffering health problems, he began to take accountability for his crimes. After several day releases, and then an extended 60-day unsupervised release to a halfway house – he has officially been given parole after 31 years in prison
Something that has devastated much of Shirley’s family
.
Her sister, Marie Arsenault, said last year, “It was very hard to take,” Arsenault told CBC News. “I think that a life sentence should be a life sentence.”
She added, “He’s still breathing. He’s living. His family can go and talk to him. They can touch him, they can hug him… but our family, we’re left with her stone.”
Beamish will have to adhere to strict conditions, or he will be returned to custody. These include staying away from Prince Edward Island, and not contacting any of Shirley’s family – bar one member, whose identity has been kept secret, who does have a relationship with the convicted murderer.
He has to return to a halfway house every night, and he is not allowed to consume drugs or alcohol. He also has to report any relationships – whether intimate or platonic – that he has with women, due to his history of violence in his personal relationships, and “manipulation”.
The Parole Board of Canada’s decision to release the convicted murderer said, “Information on file describes you as a controlling, manipulative and an abusive partner in your intimate relationships. You have acknowledged that you had difficulty controlling your anger and walking away from conflict situations, and that you could be impulsive.
“You allowed anger and jealousy to take over your emotions and lose control to the point where you took the life of your intimate partner…. The Board believes you have developed skills to manage your emotions and to better listen and understand people.”