Byron Carr
There is only one unsolved murder on Prince Edward Island, and today we are going to talk about it.
November 11, 1988, things mostly seem peaceful in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. However, the small bit that isn’t peaceful is beyond horrifying as Byron Carr, a 36 year old school teacher, is strangled to death with a towel in his own bedroom.
Along with his death, a secret about him came out. Byron, was gay, or so it was believed since according to the clues of his death he was most likely killed after consensual intercourse with another man. Was this a hate crime perhaps?
The believed timeline of the night of the murder goes something like this. He had dinner out, and then it was thought he made it home on November 10th before 9:30 pm, which we know because around that time he had some friends over for coffee. Those friends stayed until about 11:45. Shortly after they leave, so around midnight, Byron begins bar hopping, hitting up several local bars. After going to several bars, two friends accompany home, they leave about 2:45am. Come 3:00 am Byron is back out at it, he picks up a friend, and drops his friend off. Almost instantly after, a witness sees Byron talking to a man on a bike, the man on the bike… who is possibly the killer, follows, though no one technically knows we assume this man on the bike follows him home. It isn’t clear if Byron knew this person before this night or if they were strangers, getting together for an anonymous good time that turned out not so good for Byron
The next morning comes, 9 am a 1987 ford tempo is seen outside the home. 1pm, a friend makes a call to Byron, he doesn’t answer. Come 3:30 pm a different friend drives by his house, his car is in the driveway of his home. Then, finally, 8pm November 11th a friend stops at his house and actually goes and knocks on the door, there is still no answer.
People are now on high, observing his house, around 8:45 two men are seen around his house acting strangely. Though things seem odd, nothing official is yet reported. November 12th 2:30 am Byron’s dog is barking… which while might seem normal, wasn’t for this particular dog. In addition to the dog a car was seen leaving the neighborhood at far above the speed limit… pretty uncommon for that time of night. (Police believe that at this time, the killer as well as another man entered the home and did a bit of cleaning up. Socks were found in the trash, it seems like the killer wore socks on his hand while back in the house to avoid leaving fingerprints.)
November 12 about 11am, Byron misses a family event and finally, with family going over there his body is found. The kitchen door of the home is open, the dog locked in a kennel, and poor Byron is dead.
Byron has been stabbed, after his death, quite possibly when the murderer returned to clean up the scene. Written on the wall in pen is a message : “I will kill again.”
No drugs were found in Byron’s system.
The surrounding gay community was scared, they wondered if this was a warning, that there would be more hate crimes.
Byron’s house had no signs of forced entry, the murder was seemingly invited in. Byron’s wallet was also stolen.
Found inside the house was the killers underwear, thanks to this discovery we have some ideas of the size of the murderer, which they assume was slight. On the underwear were both what is assumed to be the killers DNA as well as a woman’s DNA. This is believed to mean that the killer is possibly bi-sexual. The DNA samples are deteriorated past the point that they can be re-examined now using more advanced technology.
Police feel that they know who the accomplice, the second man who helped clean up the scene is, a man who confessed but was too afraid to reveal the name of the actual killer. The police never gave a name, but apparently he has passed away now so he can’t be used as a witness.
Shortly after there was a similar crime police think could be related. Two men met and decided to get together, they had consensual sex… but then after things turned ugly as one of the men grabbed a kitchen knife and threatened the homeowner. He claimed that he had done this before, and then stole the man’s wallet. The man was described as “A white man with auburn hair who was around 19 years old.”
While there are no names of suspects this is what we do know, he was probably between 15 and 25 at the time of the murder, most likely bisexual, most likely had been involved with the police before, and probably lived in the area. The man who confessed to being an accomplice, had been on a list of possible suspects and had been 27 when the crime was committed, he would have been arrested if he didn’t die.
Theories, a former student of his did it… since it seems likely that the two were at least familiar with each other and also because the killer is fairly young.
Some people disagree with the thought that it was a local man, because the gay community on PEI was very small and they think that if it was a local man he would have been tracked down.
Bruce McArthur, a man who was arrested as a serial killer in Toronto for killings between 2010 and 2017. He was 66 when he was arrested. However, people believe he was killing long before these confirmed kills. However, he would have been much older than the suspected killer, he would have been closer to Byron’s age than the assumed 15-25 years. Also, he didn’t have auburn hair. Plus, Toronto and PEI aren’t very close in proximity.
Timeline help from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/byron-carr-timeline-1.4882769