FREDERIC SERRE
The 1510 West

The brutal murder of a Ste. Anne de Bellevue woman, whose battered body was found floating in a river near her residence in 1973, is among the 419 cold case files the Sûreté du Québec’s homicide squad is examining.

The SQ issued the list on its website last month, identifying all of the unsolved murder cases that the provincial police is still hoping to resolve. On the list is the violent murder of Georgette Mallet, who was killed in 1973, and whose assailant has never been captured. The case has remained dormant for over five decades, but the SQ says it is hoping to revive it by reaching out to the public for assistance to finally catch the killer.

On April 24, 1973, at about 4 p.m., a group of teenagers canoeing down the Outaouais River, between Ste. Anne de Bellevue and Bellevue Island, discovered a body floating on the surface of the water. The teens raced home and police were called to the scene.

The body was retrieved by police. The woman was later identified as Mallet, 24. There were signs of violence on the body. Almost a month earlier, on March 15, 1973, police said an acquaintance of Mallet’s had reported her disappearance to police.