‘Nothing but hatred’ for man who murdered Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour

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Over four months in 1983, Joseph George Sutherland effectively obliterated the lives of two families.

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A violent and bloody onslaught would for all their eternities stain the victims’ lives, their relationships, their hopes and their fears. Broken, drifting, frightened, haunted.

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Now, two words encapsulated the dreary fate of Sutherland in a Toronto courtroom on Monday — the end.

Sutherland, 62, who pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in October for the brutal 1983 sex slayings of Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour just months apart, will automatically be sentenced to life in prison.

The defence wants parole eligibility set at 18 years, while the Crown is pushing for 22 years.

Nine harrowing separate victim impact statements were read aloud in packed courtroom 2-1 at the University Ave. courthouse.

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The little brother of Gilmour, Sean McCowan, was just 13 years old when she was murdered. Like the others, there was nothing but disgust and revulsion for Sutherland who wore a white, pressed shirt, blue jeans and his hair in a ponytail.

The killer looked straight ahead, stiff as a block of granite, as two families exhumed a horrific past.

“It took you 40 years. If you had come forward and asked for forgiveness, I might have been able to forgive you in a small way. But you didn’t,” McCowan said.

“We’re here today because of Steve Smith [Det. Sgt. head of the Toronto Police cold case unit] and his team and all the detectives who worked on this over the years who never gave up.”

Then, looking at Sutherland, he said: “I have nothing but hatred for you.”

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Susan Tice left four children without their “cool,” devoted mother. Her children and niece gave statements.

Gilmour’s two little brothers, stepfather, and a childhood friend poured out their hearts for nearly two hours.

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Two different families delivering the same message, baring for all their private agony. The missed birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, children, the wise counsel, love and friendship.

Like a cancer that metastasized, the disease of the homicide survivors percolates through the veins, slithering from one generation to the next. Who these people were, what they could have been, the infinite ifs are the slimy unseen wake of a homicide.

“On Dec. 20, 1983, my life was irrevocably changed,” Gilmour’s other brother, Kaelin McCowan, said. “Erin was an angel.”

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Erin’s late mother never recovered from the shock of her only daughter’s senseless murder.

And there was resentment that Sutherland had wormed his way out of Toronto, got an education, married, had a child and friendships. Need proof? His Facebook page shows the killer doing some of the things Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour should have been doing.

Sutherland, of Moosonee, Ont., had originally been charged with first-degree murder in a case that vexed generations of Toronto homicide detectives.

Each year, with every technological advance, cops inched closer to a resolution. But the killer always remained just out of reach. Finally, genetic genealogy proved the magic bullet in 2019.

After eliminating Sutherland’s four brothers, detectives zeroed in on their suspect.

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In 1983, Sutherland was young. Today he is middle-aged. And when — and if — he leaves behind the concrete walls of prison, Sutherland will be either very old or very dead.

The double killer was decades late for the rope, but figuratively, at least, he has been sentenced to death.

Ghosts of a supposedly more gentle, civil time finally caught up to Joseph George Sutherland.

Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell is expected to determine Sutherland’s sentence Tuesday morning.

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@HunterTOSun

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