Earlier this week, police announced the remains of a third man, Lawrence Bertrim, had been found on a rural property north of the normally quiet eastern Ontario town of Smiths Falls.
Mayor Shawn Pankow said news of the discovery earlier this month was likely met with mixed emotions: While there’s hope someone who’s gone missing, as Bertrim did nearly four years ago, will one day come home alive, learning of a death is an opportunity to give him the dignity he deserves and provide “some degree of closure.”
It’s the latest grim finding on a densely wooded, 16-hectare lot located off Kelly Jordan Road in Montague, a township hugging Smiths Falls, which is about 80 kilometres southwest of Ottawa.
Two weeks earlier, the remains of Robert Lambert, who’d been missing even longer, were recovered.
Nine months before that, the remains of Robbie Thomson, who was last seen three years ago, were found. Three people have been charged in Thomson’s death; a fourth is charged with being an accessory to the killing.
However, no one’s been charged in the suspicious deaths of Bertrim and Lambert as rewards of $50,000 are being offered for useful information.
Although the three men’s remains were found at the same site, police aren’t explicitly linking their deaths.
They’re also asking the public to give police officers the space and time needed to investigate the case and bring resolution to Bertrim’s and Lambert’s families.
“We need to remember that there are families impacted by these deaths,” Sgt. Erin Cranton, a spokesperson for Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), which is leading all three investigations, said Wednesday outside the service’s east region headquarters in Smiths Falls.
“I think it’s important that the public take a step back, recognize that there are people that are grieving and trying to accept some closure maybe. And just let us do our job.
“We are doing everything we can to bring answers.”
‘Quite the graveyard’
Smiths Falls, which has about 9,000 residents, is typically in the regional news for its economic ups and downs related to the Hershey’s chocolate factory and, more recently, a cannabis producer.
The community isn’t used to the periodic jolts coming out of the unfolding scene off Kelly Jordan Road.
On Wednesday, Radio-Canada interviewed one person in downtown Smiths Falls who remarked that the site appeared to be “quite the graveyard.”
“It’s not something we’ve really ever been through before,” Pankow said in his own interview, noting that Bertrim was last seen in the downtown area that includes the mayor’s office.
In 2023, the disappearances of Bertrim and Thomson had people on edge, creating speculation that police sought to tamp down.
Pankow said that anxiety diminished in the wake of the charges last year against the four accused in the Thomson case.
“We expect charges coming on the other two [cases],” the mayor said. “And so the fear of some other culprit being out there or risk to other citizens is probably drying up.”
But Cranton said there’s still more work to do.
“In this case, we need to determine what the linkages were and what led to the deaths,” she said.
“We understand there are a lot of questions. We have to ensure that we do the most thorough investigation possible.”
As families and the community await answers, here’s a timeline of how things have unfolded:
2004
Lambert, of Montague Township, purchases the property off Kelly Jordan Road, according to property records obtained by CBC last year. He was 75 when he disappeared in the summer of 2018.
Decades earlier, Lambert moved to the Smiths Falls area from the U.S. to be with his future wife, Kathryn Lambert.
Her son has described Robert as a loving and caring husband, and said Kathryn’s death in 2016 was “a struggle for him to overcome.”
2018
April: Christopher Fenton, one of the four men charged in Thomson’s death, becomes a co-owner of the Kelly Jordan Road property.
Lambert disappears soon after.
July: The month Lambert went missing, according to OPP.
At the time of his disappearance, investigators were told Lambert had returned to the U.S., OPP said, adding there was no record of Lambert crossing the border.
Police would publicly report Lambert as missing four months later. By January 2019, they were “increasingly concerned” about the circumstances of his disappearance.
2022
Sept. 30: Bertrim, of Smiths Falls, is last seen. He was 42 when he was reported as missing on Oct. 2.
“I know that people are hearing things and have information,” Bertrim’s mother, Linda Young, later said in a video appeal released by OPP. “Help bring my family some closure.”
2023
February: OPP join the investigation into Bertrim’s disappearance, led by the Smiths Falls Police Service.
Oct. 12-18: Thomson, who according to OPP was known to frequent Smiths Falls and Prescott, goes missing. Police are told about his disappearance on Oct. 19.
Thomson and Bertrim knew each other, as CBC would later learn.
Thomson, 34, was the youngest of the three men who went missing.
Thomson’s family has described him as a gentle giant who stood up for his Junior B hockey teammates and was always willing to lend a hand around the house.
“Normally he’d be in contact with either me or my dad every three days. Within five days, there was nothing,” his sister, Tabatha Thomson, said of his disappearance.
Nov. 3: Steven Tate, a 34-year-old from Montague Township, is reported missing after he was last seen that day.
It’s believed Thomson and Bertrim knew Tate.
Nov. 8: Tate’s body is discovered in a ditch along Highway 15, which cuts through Smiths Falls.
Later in the month, OPP say they believe Tate was the victim of a hit-and-run. That same day, they issue a separate release again appealing for information about the disappearances of Thomson and Bertrim.
Back then, police didn’t connect those disappearances to Tate’s, and aren’t doing so now.
“At this time, we are not linking any of these investigations until we have the facts to do so,” Cranton said Wednesday.
WATCH | People in Smiths Falls deal with the discovery of human remains on a property:
Some residents in Smith Falls, Ont. said they want more information from police about the recent string of disappearances of three men in the area over the past year, including one whose body was found earlier this week.
2024
Sept. 10: OPP report they have conducted a number of searches and followed up on numerous tips from the public.
“While there have been multiple appeals for information, investigators still believe someone has a key piece of evidence that will help determine what happened to Lawrence Bertrim and Robbie Thomson.”
2025
Oct. 29: OPP arrest (and soon after charge) three people in the death of Thomson — including Christopher Fenton, who co-owns the Kelly Jordan Road property alongside Lambert, who’d long gone missing.
Fenton, 48, and Erin Mackie, 40, both from Montague Township, and 34-year-old Joshua Belfiori of Kingston are accused of first-degree murder.
Thomson’s father tells CBC the charges brings some solace, but he hopes police will find his boy’s remains.
“There’s a big void,” he says.
Oct. 30: Officers find Thomson’s remains while executing a search warrant at the Kelly Jordan Road property — the first in what would prove to be a trio of upsetting but clarifying discoveries at the site over the next nine months.
“I didn’t think we’d get him back,” Thomson’s sister, Tabatha Thomson, says after learning the news, which was announced by the OPP on Nov. 5, after the remains were identified and the family was notified.
“It is important that [families] know first when a loved one is found,” Cranton said Wednesday.
OPP have charged three people with first-degree murder in the death of a Smiths Falls, Ont., man reported missing two years ago.
Oct. 31: Robert Lambert’s family tells CBC that they still hope to get answers that have been “a long time coming.”
“The entire area of Smiths Falls has been … holding [its] breath for years now.”
2026
March 19: Erin Mackie, one of three people accused of murdering Thomson, is denied bail.
July 20: Nine months after Thomson’s remains were found, Lambert’s remains are recovered from the Montague Township property (announced by OPP on Aug. 5).
Aug. 6: Bertrim’s remains are also located on the property, as disclosed by the OPP on Aug. 18.
“Of course, we can’t time when we’re going to make a discovery in terms of the investigation,” Cranton tells CBC.
“We obviously went through a winter period during our search efforts. So that does change the ability to manoeuvre around the property, [which] is a large property.”
Pankow, who attended Thomson’s memorial last year, said there’s an expectation “this is all tied together” and that further charges will come.
“But we know police have to do their due diligence. They’ll work their way through, and I think that day will come.”
Cranton said OPP are still seeking information in all three investigations, adding that the $50,000 rewards for useful tips in the Lawrence and Bertrim cases remain in place.
Aug. 20: OPP decline to say if they believe there could be other people’s remains on the property, or whether they’re even searching for other bodies.
“Police will maintain an increased presence on Kelly Jordan Road,” they said in their Aug. 18 release.
Pankow said he views the investigation as “an anomaly” for his town.
“The reality is, we’re a safe community,” he said Wednesday. “A lot of good things happen here. We’re fortunate.
“I still hear some people say, ‘We don’t even bother locking our doors at night.'”
