A Canadian man who died in 2019 has been identified as the perpetrator of three unsolved murders in Toronto, and investigators believe there may be more victims.

Toronto police said Recent forensic testing and genetic genealogy Thursday finally identified Kenneth Smith, 72, of Windsor, Ontario, as the person who killed two women in the 1980s and a third woman in the 1990s.

The first woman, Christine Prince, 25, is said to have been found dead on June 22, 1982, in Toronto’s Rouge River after being sexually assaulted and hit on the head.

Police say Claire Samson, 23, was found dead of gunshot wounds in Oro-Medonte Township on September 1, 1983.

A third victim, 41-year-old Gracelyn Greenidge, is said to have died of blunt force trauma in her Toronto apartment on July 29, 1997.

Police said Smith was living and working in Toronto at the time of the murders and had a history of sexual abuse, and investigators believe there may be more victims.

Genetic genealogy has been increasingly used to find unidentified crime suspects and help solve a slew of unsolved cases in recent years, some of which are more than half a century old or involve other serial killers. He exposed the Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelowho pleaded guilty to 13 murders and 13 rape charges spanning much of California between 1975 and 1986.

“This case has haunted our office,” said police Det. Steve Smith said in a social media video Thursday.

Police can create a DNA profile to upload to public DNA databases and compare it to other profiles, helping to trace individuals within a family tree.

“It’s amazing. I mean, it shows you now that we really broke the barrier,” Sgt. Smith said. “Cases that were unsolvable in the past are now solvable.”

Ontario Provincial Police Chief Supt. Karen Gonneau said as police have advanced in DNA technology, they have looked at a number of unsolved murders. It was only in 2017 that the suspect was linked to all three women.

Smith said they were able to identify close relatives of the offenders. And he said that with that information, the forensic science center was then able to conduct a final comparison that led to the final identification of Smith.

He said Smith was living and working in Toronto during the period of all three murders. He was known to the police and had a history of sexual abuse.

“Based on the evidence we have today, we believe it’s possible there are additional victims that have never been identified,” said Sgt. Smith said.

He said Smith had never before been investigated for the murders. He also said he had been in prison at least once before the first two murders and twice before Greenidge’s murder.

Other serial killers have made headlines in Canada in recent months.

Earlier this year, remains of two indigenous women murdered by a convicted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki they were found in a landfill in central Canada.

In October 2024, a a woman described by police as a serial killer was arrested in a suburb of Toronto and charged with three murders in three days.

Canadian serial killer convicted in May 2024 Robert Picktonwho brought female victims to his pig farm during a crime spree near Vancouver in the late 1990s and early 2000s, died after the attack in prison.