Commander Mélanie Dupont inherited a chilling legacy: a backlog of unsolved homicides haunting the streets of Montreal. Upon taking charge of the major crimes division, she immediately formed a dedicated cold-case unit, a team tasked with breathing life back into investigations long considered dormant. Little did she know, within five months, they would deliver closure in a case that had lingered for over a decade.
The story begins in July 2008, with Jacques Bolduc, a man already deeply entrenched in a life of crime. After decades behind bars – his sentence dating back to 1979 and including an attempted murder for a brutal shooting – Bolduc was granted statutory release. Despite warnings from his case management team, who deemed him unstable and a continuing risk, he was assigned to a halfway house. The parole board, limited in its power with statutory release, could only impose conditions, not deny his freedom entirely.
December 11, 2008, brought a horrific discovery. Firefighters responding to a blaze in a Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie apartment found the body of 26-year-old Catherine Daviau. It quickly became clear the fire wasn’t accidental; it was a desperate attempt to conceal a murder. Investigators would later uncover a chilling connection: Bolduc had contacted Daviau after she advertised her car for sale online.
Bolduc vanished the night of the murder, failing to return to the halfway house, prompting the immediate suspension of his release. Just two days later, he was apprehended attempting to steal a vehicle. A search revealed a disturbing collection of stolen items – jewelry, iPods, and drugs. Returned to federal prison, his parole was officially revoked in March 2009, a decision fueled by a terrifying incident between the murder and his arrest: a knifepoint threat and attempted home invasion.
The investigation stalled for years, but Montreal police didn’t forget. In 2011, they issued a public appeal for information, revealing details of Daviau’s last known movements – leaving work at 4:30 p.m. – and the 911 call reporting the fire. Crucially, they disclosed the belief that Daviau had been sexually assaulted and that DNA evidence remained at the scene, a silent witness waiting to be identified.
The parole board repeatedly denied Bolduc’s requests for release, a rare and significant decision reflecting the profound danger he posed. Three times, in 2014, they determined he remained too much of a risk to society, extending his incarceration beyond his statutory release date. This was a testament to the severity of his past and the unwavering concern for public safety.
Even after serving the full extent of his 35-year sentence, Bolduc’s violent tendencies resurfaced. In February 2017, he terrorized two separate victims in quick succession. First, he shot a man in the throat after attempting to rob him at gunpoint. Remarkably, the victim initially believed the weapon was a toy. Hours later, he walked into a store and shot a woman in the neck when she brazenly mocked him, tossing coins in his face.
Bolduc’s escalating violence led to a landmark ruling in June 2020. Superior Court Justice France Charbonneau declared him a dangerous offender, sentencing him to an indefinite prison term. A critical component of this ruling was an order for Bolduc to provide a DNA sample, a piece of evidence that would ultimately unlock the cold case.
Tragically, Jacques Bolduc died of natural causes in September 2021, before that DNA sample could be collected. The COVID-19 pandemic further delayed the process, and his body was cremated. The case seemed destined to remain unsolved. But advancements in forensic science offered a new hope.
In August 2025, researchers at the province’s crime lab achieved a breakthrough. Utilizing genetic genealogy – a process only recently adopted in Quebec – they were able to identify Bolduc by linking a DNA sample from Daviau’s apartment to his distant relatives. The decades-long search for Catherine Daviau’s killer had finally reached its conclusion, a testament to the relentless dedication of investigators and the power of evolving forensic technology.
