A confession, a DNA sample and a lie: How police say they cracked a 1975 cold case

UPDATE | On Aug. 18, 2023, Rodney Nichols was released from custody on a $250,000 personal surety bond with conditions. He is under house arrest with GPS monitoring, only allowed to leave home for court or in a medical emergency, and must surrender his travel documents.

Canadian authorities say they have every reason to believe a former rugby player strangled his girlfriend in Montreal and dumped her tied-up body in the Nation River in eastern Ontario in 1975.

According to documents filed in a Florida court, defendant Rodney Nichols allegedly killed Jewell Parchman Langford after he realized she had lied to him about her age.

At the time of her death, the Tennessee native was 48 and Montreal-based Nichols was 32.

For decades, she was known only by the moniker "Nation River Lady" as authorities struggled to identify her.

Canadian authorities are now calling on the U.S. government to extradite Nichols, hoping the 81-year-old Florida resident will face justice in Ontario in the case that has frustrated law enforcement authorities for nearly 50 years.

As part of the extradition proceedings in the United States, authorities have filed affidavits from the Ontario Crown prosecutor and the lead investigator from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) in the case.

According to the allegations in these documents, which haven't been proven in court, Nichols confessed to murdering Langford during an interview at his home with OPP investigators last year and said it was time for him "to come clean."

Nichols also agreed to provide a DNA sample. The sample was later allegedly linked to a trace of blood found on a piece of cloth tied around Langford's head when her body was discovered.

In addition, investigators believe that Nichols knowingly lied to Montreal police on June 7, 1975, in order to cover up his role in the disappearance of his girlfriend.

At that time, he told police he had just spoken to Langford and that she was in Vancouver. In fact, her body had been found about a month earlier face down in the Nation River near Casselman, between Montreal and Ottawa. At the time, police found traces of blood on the bridge over the river on Highway 417.

According to the coroner's findings, Langford died of strangulation.

An undated photograph of Jewell Parchman Langford, left, and a bust of the Nation River Lady, which was created by Ontario Provincial Police in the mid-2010s as they were trying to uncover the identity of a homicide victim found east of Ottawa in 1975. (CBC)

A disputed confession

Nichols's lawyer disputes the validity of the steps taken by the OPP in this case, noting among other things, that his client suffers from advanced dementia.

Lawyer Michael Caruso claims his client's "alleged confession" was obtained without taking into account his mental state and that it is, as such, "unreliable." In addition, Caruso raised questions about the validity of the procedure that led police to obtain his client's DNA sample.

"Mr. Nichols suffers from dementia and there are serious questions as to whether he has any real idea of what is transpiring from day to day," Caruso said in a document filed in court in Florida.

He therefore requested — without success — that Nichols be released on bail while the extradition proceedings are pending, saying his client doesn't constitute a flight risk due to his physical condition and lack of financial resources.

The extradition request was filed with U.S. authorities in September 2022, days after Nichols was formally charged with the murder in Ontario.

The case is currently before a court in Florida, where Nichols has resided for several years.

He was arrested last month at the request of Canadian authorities. He hasn't yet entered a plea in connection with the case, which will be scheduled for court in Ontario, if Nichols is extradited.

The main breakthrough in the case came in 2020 when OPP identified the woman whose body was discovered in 1975 through advances in DNA technology and the use of genetic genealogy.

This discovery brought the Montreal police onto the case, since Langford's family had reported her disappearance there in 1975.

At the time, police did not make the connection between her reported disappearance in Montreal and the discovery of an unidentified woman's body about 150 kilometres west in Ontario.

A brief relationship

The house in Montreal Rodney Nichols lived in with Jewell Parchman Langford. (Daniel Thomas/Radio-Canada)

According to affidavits submitted to U.S. authorities, Nichols and Langford met in Florida in January 1975.

She divorced from her husband in Tennessee a few weeks later and travelled a few times to Montreal, where Nichols, a star player on the Westmount rugby team, lived.

The two bought a house in Westmount and moved in together on April 18, 1975.

Langford's family lost contact with her after April 22 and her body was found in the Nation River on May 3. Her hands and wrists were bound with neckties, while her head was wrapped in towels tied around her neck.

"The presence of swelling of the wrists around the ligatures suggests that she was alive when her wrists and ankles were tied," according to Crown prosecutor Maura Jette's affidavit on file.

"The absence of water in her lungs suggests that she was deceased before entering the water," the affidavit adds.

The gravestone of Jewell Parchman Langford at a cemetery in Jackson, Tenn. (Denis Babin/Radio-Canada)

Nichols's neckties

In a separate affidavit, an OPP investigator claims that during an interview with police on Feb. 1, 2022, Nichols claimed Langford lied to him in 1975 about her age. He added he made the discovery by seeing her driver's licence.

According to what he told the OPP in 2022 (and what he told Montreal police in 1975), the matter was the subject of a heated argument shortly after they moved in together.

When told by OPP investigators that Langford had recently been identified as the woman found in Ontario in 1975, Nichols allegedly claimed the two were on a sailboat on the river when they capsized.

When his version of events was challenged by police and investigators showed photos of Langford's tied-up body, Nichols allegedly "identified the neckties as belonging to him," according to OPP investigator Cory Tremblay's affidavit.

Nichols was informed at the start of the interview that he had the right to a lawyer but nonetheless spoke to police. He did contact a Canadian lawyer after discussing his alleged role in Langford's death, but continued his interview with police afterward.

When asked if he would like to go back in time and do something different, Nichols replied "obviously," according to Tremblay's affidavit.

If found guilty, the maximum sentence he would face would be life in prison with the possibility of parole after 10 to 20 years.

The matter of his extradition is scheduled to return to court in Florida in September.